The government today said public sector banks wrote-off loans worth Rs 10,966 crore from their books of accounts during the 2009-10 financial year.
State Bank of India had written off Rs 1,990 crore worth of loans, while Canara Bank and Punjab National Bank wrote off Rs 884 crore and Rs 853 crore, respectively during the year, Minister of State for Finance Namo Narain Meena said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
"Banks may decide to write off a loan in terms of their credit or recovery policy as approved by their board of directors," he said.
He said, however, certain broad guidelines have been given from time-to-time to by the Reserve Bank of India, requiring the banks to apply due diligence, exhaust all possibilities of recovery, monitor such accounts, among other things, for writing-off loans.
During 2008-09, the public sector banks had together written off Rs 7,217 crore in loans.
In reply to another question, Meena said to encourage people from the unorganised sector to voluntarily save for their retirement and to lower the cost of operations of the New Pension System (NPS) for such subscribers, the government has approved a 'Swavalamban' scheme in the Budget 2010-11.
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Under the scheme, the government will contribute a sum of Rs 1,000 per year to each NPS account opened in the year 2010-11, he said.
This scheme will be available for persons who join the NPS with a minimum contribution of Rs 1,000 and a maximum contribution of Rs 12,000 per annum during the 2010-11 financial year and are not members of any statutory provident fund.
This scheme will be available for another three years and is targeted to benefit about 10 lakh NPS subscribers of the unorganised sector during the year 2010-11, he said.