Scheduled commercial banks’ NPAs drop at Rs 9.34 lakh crore in FY19: Sitharaman

17 Jul 2019 Evaluate

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that total non-performing assets (NPAs) of scheduled commercial banks (SCBs), after reaching a peak of Rs 10.36 lakh crore as on March 31, 2018, dropped by Rs 1.02 lakh crore to Rs 9.34 lakh crore in the fiscal ended March 2019 (FY19) as a result of steps taken by the government. She noted that the government has implemented a comprehensive 4R’s strategy, consisting of recognition of NPAs transparently, resolution and recovery of value from stressed assets, recapitalising of public sector banks (PSBs), and reforms in PSBs and the wider financial ecosystem for a responsible and clean system.

The minister also said that among others, change in credit culture with the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) fundamentally changing the creditor-borrower relationship, taking away control of defaulting companies, debarring wilful defaulters from taking part in resolution process as well as raising funds from markets are the steps that have been employed.

Sitharaman further highlighted that comprehensive measures have been taken to prevent frauds including directions to banks to examine all NPA accounts above Rs 50 crore from the angle of possible fraud, initiation of criminal proceedings, enactment of Fugitive Economic Offenders Act 2018, creation of Central Fraud Registry, empowering heads of Public Sector Banks to request for issue of Look Out Circular. She also stated that other steps under the banking reform process such as a board-approved loan policies in public sector banks, use of third party data sources for comprehensive due diligence across data sources have been put in place to check frauds.

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