RBI to examine stalled projects

RBI to examine stalled projects
x
Highlights

RBI to examine stalled projects. In an effort to help banks facing asset quality woes and to revive investments in the critical infra sector, the government on Tuesday discussed 85 large projects entailing Rs 3.51 lakh crore in outstanding bank credit.

Fate of 85 large projects, bank’s need to crystallise actions on NPAs

Mumbai (PTI): In an effort to help banks facing asset quality woes and to revive investments in the critical infra sector, the government on Tuesday discussed 85 large projects entailing Rs 3.51 lakh crore in outstanding bank credit.

After a specially-convened meeting at the RBI headquarters, Financial Services Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said a total of 85 such projects, from the power, steel, roads and ports sectors, with an outstanding bank credit of Rs 3.51 lakh crore were discussed.

Efforts were made to analyse the various reasons for stress in the infrastructure projects, he said added that 4 per cent of projects discussed were classified by lenders as NPAs.

Those present at the meeting included Reserve Bank Deputy Governor SS Mundra, special secretary at the Union Power Ministry RN Choubey, State Bank of India chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya and the chairman of the bankers' lobby group IBA, TM Bhasin.

Addressing the media, Mundra said the central bank will examine all issues related to the stalled projects. It can be noted that the Finance Ministry has been trying to iron out issues regarding the stalled projects for quite some time and the previous Manmohan Singh government had also convened similar meetings.

Concerned over rising bad loans in infrastructure sector, the Finance Ministry had called the meeting of heads of public sector banks to prepare a roadmap for clearing bottlenecks that hamper implementation of large projects.

The meeting was aimed at helping the department crystalise actions required by banks, the Finance Ministry and other central ministries as well as support required from the Reserve Bank, he had said. One of the major reasons for rising NPAs for PSU banks is non-implementation of infra projects for reasons like, absence of fuel linkage, environment clearances and land acquisition.

The level of NPAs and the stressed projects of the public sector banks have been showing an upward trend in the last four quarters. Gross NPAs of public sector banks rose sharply to 5.33 per cent in September 2014 compared to 4.72 per cent at March 2014.

Show Full Article
Print Article
Next Story
More Stories
ADVERTISEMENT