House panel to quiz finmin officials on Tuesday

A parliamentary standing committee on finance will meet Finance ministry officials on Tuesday on stressed assets in the banking sector.

The meeting assumes significance in the wake of recent instances of alleged frauds in the banking sector, especially in Punjab National Bank and the recent rise in non-performing assets in public sector banks.

The NPAs of the state-owned lenders is expected to hit a fresh high in the January-March quarter, rising by Rs 8,000 crore.

The committee led by senior Congress member Veerappa Moily is expected to take stock of the steps taken by the government in this regard.

The committee has had two meetings with the officials in the past two months, after the Punjab National Bank's Rs 13,000 crore fraud came to light.

The government has taken several steps including a close examination of NPA cases above Rs 50 crore and asking managing directors of banks to refer cases to the CBI, after detecting bank frauds and wilful defaults.