PSBs turn profitable by posting Rs 3,221 crore profit in H1FY20: Anurag Singh Thakur

10 Dec 2019 Evaluate

Minister of State for Finance Anurag Singh Thakur has said that public sector banks (PSBs) returned to profitability by posting an aggregate profit of Rs 3,221 crore in the first half of the current fiscal (H1FY20). He noted that PSBs had posted huge losses in 2017-18 and 2018-19 financial years due to heavy provisioning for non-performing assets (NPAs) and other contingencies.

The minister has said that PSBs had posted aggregate operating profits during 2017-18 and 2018-19 of Rs 1,55,603 crore and Rs 1,53,871 crore respectively. However, he said they made aggregate provisions for NPAs and other contingencies of Rs 2,40,973 crore and Rs 2,35,623 crore in FY2018 and FY2019, respectively. He noted that this resulted in aggregate net losses of Rs 85,370 crore and Rs 81,752 crore in 2017-18 and 2018-19 respectively. 

Citing data of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on global operations of PSBs, Thakur said their aggregate gross advances increased to Rs 68.76 lakh crore as on 31 March 2014 from Rs 25.03 lakh crore as on March end 2008. As per RBI inputs, the primary reasons for the spurt in stressed assets have been observed to be, aggressive lending practices, wilful default/loan frauds/corruption in some cases, and economic slowdown. 

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