The government today said 4,387 large borrowers accounted for Rs 8.6 lakh crore or 90 per cent of total non-performing assets (NPAs) of the banking sector at the end of March 2018.
The NPAs of the banking sector were Rs 9.62 lakh crore at end-March 2018, up from Rs 2.51 lakh crore as on March 2014, said Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.
"The RBI has apprised that as on March 31, 2018, there were 4,387 borrowers with aggregate funded outstanding of Rs 8,59,532 crore related to Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) of more than Rs 10 crore and above outstanding, in respect of scheduled commercial banks," he said while replying to another question.
He further said as regards details of companies/defaulting individuals against whom NPAs of more than Rs 10 crore and above are pending recovery, the RBI has informed it is prohibited from disclosing credit information.
Section 45E of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, provides that credit information submitted by a bank shall be treated as confidential and not to be published or otherwise disclosed.
Shukla also said that as per RBI's directions, cases have been filed under Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in respect of 39 large defaulters, amounting to about Rs 2.69 lakh crore funded exposure (as of December 2017).
The Finance Ministry also informed the House that the gross advances of banks increased from Rs 25,03,431 crore as on March 31, 2008 to Rs 68,75,748 crore as on March 31, 2014, as per the global operations data of the RBI.
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It further said public sector banks (PSBs) initiated cleaning up by recognising NPAs and provided for expected losses.
"As a result of transparent recognition of stressed assets as NPAs, gross Non-performing Assets (NPAs) of Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) (as per RBI's off-site returns global operations provisional data, as on March 31, 2018), increased to Rs 10,35,528 crore, of which Rs 8,95,601 crore (86.49 per cent) were gross NPAs of PSBs," it said.