Bad loans at Public Sector banks up at Rs 2.67 lakh crore in FY'15: Jayant Sinha

Bad loans at public sector banks have increased to Rs 2.67 lakh crore at the end of March 2015 from Rs 2.16 lakh crore a year ago, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha informed Parliament on Tuesday.

"NPAs of (PSU) banks for the system as a whole is increasing continuously," he said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

Gross NPA Ratio of the public sector banks (PSBs) increased to 5.43% at the end of March 2015 as compared to 4.72% a year ago, he said.

Replying to another question, Sinha said "the government, RBI and the PSBs are all concerned with timely recovery of NPAs as it affects their profitability and capital adequacy." During 2014-15, he said, the public sector banks have recovered Rs 41,236 crore as compared to Rs 33,698 crore in the previous fiscal.

The recovery mechanism in the form of Debt Recovery Tribunals (DRTs), Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR), Central Registry of Securitization Asset Reconstruction and Security Interest of India (CERSAI) and Central Repository of Information of Large Credits (CRILC) are already in existence, he said.

RBI further released guidelines for Early Recognition of Financial Distress, Prompt Steps for Resolution suggesting various steps with specific timelines for implementation of corrective action, he added.

Sinha said RBI has also introduced flexible structuring of long terms project loans to infrastructure and core industries which takes into account the lifecycle of the project for the purpose of repayment.