The government has informed that scheduled commercial banks have written off bad loans amounting to Rs 46,382 crore during the first six months of 2021-22 (H1FY22). As per the RBI guidelines and policy approved by bank boards, non-performing loans, including, inter-alia, those in respect of which full provisioning has been made on completion of four years, are removed from the balance sheet of the bank concerned by way of the write-off.
Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Karad said banks evaluate/consider the impact of write-offs as part of their regular exercise to clean up their balance-sheet, avail of tax benefit and optimise capital, in accordance with the RBI guidelines and policy approved by their boards. He said the borrowers of written-off loans continue to be liable for repayment and the process of recovery of dues from the borrower in written-off loan accounts continues.
He further said the total loans outstanding of Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) stood at Rs 3,34,171 crore at end-March 2021, up from Rs 2,98,214 crore at end-March 2020. He said RRBs have been playing an important role in purveying agricultural credit, particularly to small and marginal farmers and weaker sections of society.
