Amid the intense tariff war following entry of Reliance Jio in the telecom sector, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has flagged concern of high debt for the sector and said that banks as on whole have an exposure of Rs 97,681 crore in the telecom sector.
Further, the Finance Minister quoting the Reserve Bank of India figure said, total outstanding (funded) advances by public sector banks to the 'communications' sector stood at Rs 63,415 crore, while total exposure to the sector worked out to be Rs 97,681 crore. For public sector banks, the gross Non Performing Asset (NPA) ratio and stressed advances ratio for the sector stood at 3.68 per cent and 11.29 per cent respectively, at the end of 2016-17 fiscal.
Jaitley also cited SBI Chairman, who has pointed out that stress in the telecom sector has reached 'highly unsustainable levels' due to erosion of topline and earnings of the service providers. Though, he also said that SBI Chairman has made certain recommendations for tackling stress in the sector, including aligning deferred payment liabilities for spectrum for its life, rationalisation of regulatory charges, quick resolution of litigation on definition of adjusted gross revenues, easing regulation of merger and acquisition. The finance minister further added that the government has already constituted an Inter-Ministerial Group for the sector, which soon will be giving its report.
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