New Delhi, March 9 (IANS): The gross non-performing assets (NPAs), or bad loans, in the Indian banking system amounted to Rs 8,40,958 crore in December, Parliament was told on Friday.
Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla told the Lok Sabha in a written reply that industry accounted for largest portion of these NPAs, followed by the services and agriculture sectors.
The gross NPAs of scheduled banks as on December 31, 2017 due to loans to industry were at Rs 6,09,222 crore, he said. The services sector followed, with bad loans of Rs 1,10,520 crore, while NPAs in agriculture and allied activities came to Rs 69,600 crore. Retail loans gone bad amounted to Rs 36,630 crore.
State-run State Bank of India (SBI) accounted for the highest amount of gross NPAs at Rs 2,01,560 crore.
Among others, Punjab National Bank (PNB) was at Rs 55,200 crore, IDBI Bank - Rs 44,542 crore, Bank of India - Rs 43,474 crore, Bank of Baroda - Rs 41,649 crore, Union Bank of India - Rs 38,047 crore, Canara Bank - Rs 37,794 crore and private lender ICICI Bank at Rs 33,849 crore.
Among other public sector banks, Indian Overseas Bank bank had gross NPAs of Rs 31,724 crore, Central Bank of India - Rs 32,491 crore, UCO Bank - Rs 24,308 crore, Allahabad Bank - Rs 23,120 crore, Andhra Bank - Rs 21,599 crore and Corporation Bank - Rs 21,818 crore.
The Minister also said there are 8,457 cases pending in the National Company Law Tribunal and 264 in the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal as on December 31, 2017, through which banks are trying to recover their dues. The government has embarked on a two-pronged strategy on bad loans.
On the one hand, it has brought in the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) which provides for a six-month time-bound insolvency resolution process. On the other hand, it has approved a Rs 2.11 lakh crore recapitalisation plan for state-run banks.
In June last year, the RBI referred 12 accounts, totalling about 25 per cent of the gross NPAs, for resolution under the IBC.
