| Finance Ministry blames it on economic recession, monsoon woes. |
New Delhi, April 21
Net non-performing assets (NPAs) of public sector banks grew 23 per cent between March and December last year, as global economic downturn and drought conditions in the country affected asset quality.
Except a few banks, all the public sector banks (PSBs) had shown rising NPAs consecutively in the last three years, said a report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance tabled recently in the Lok Sabha.
PSBs have reported an increase in net NPA to Rs 25,610 crore as at end December 2009 from Rs 20,801 crore in end March 2009. Net NPAs of PSBs stood at Rs 18,009 crore as at end March 2008.
Climbs down
Private sector banks' net NPA declined to Rs 6,972 crore at end December 2009 from Rs 7,305 crore in end March 2009. Net NPAs of private sector banks stood at Rs 5,632 crore in end March 2008.
The Finance Ministry has attributed the rise in NPAs of the banks during 2008-09 to slippage of accounts in various sectors, mainly due to the global economic recession and the vagaries of monsoon affecting agricultural loans.
In his deposition to the committee, the Secretary, Department of Financial Services, said that “Rs 25,000 crore (Net NPA) is because of the fact that there are stressed assets and economic downturn was there”.
The Finance Ministry official noted that the Gross NPAs and the Net NPAs have been coming down. “We are including NPAs as one of the aspects that is looked into very seriously. Each bank board has to look into these assets, which are going bad, and see that what better monitoring can be done to see that these accounts are nursed and brought back to proper health,” the official said.
krsrivats@thehindu.co.in
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