Govt seeks Parliament grant towards PSB recap

 The Centre  on Thursday sought Parliament's approval for an additional Rs 80,000 crore for the recapitalisation plan of public sector banks.

Minister of State for Finance P P Chaudhary tabled the third set of supplementary demands for grants in the Lok Sabha seeking the funds for PSBs whose non-performing assets are nearing Rs 10 lakh crore.

"Approval of the Parliament is sought to authorise gross additional expenditure of Rs 80,000 crore. Of this, the proposal involving gross additional expenditure, matched by enhanced receipts aggregates to Rs 80,000 crore," the document tabled in LS said.

The move comes a day after the finance ministry approved infusion of Rs 7,577 crore in 6 weak PSBs to strengthen their capital adequacy ratio.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had recently said that bold steps will be taken by the government to recapitalise banks in the country.

The additional sum will make provision for Rs 2.11 lakh crore bank recapitalisation promise the Centre had made to PSBs in October this year. The sum has to be provided in the next two years. Of the total money, Rs 1.35 lakh crore will come from recap bonds, and rest from markets and budgetary support.

PSU banks which are expected to get the capital in the course of the next month include Bank of India, IDBI Bank and UCO Bank.

Earlier, On December 18, the government had sought Rs 66,113 crore under the second batch of supplementary demands for grants.