Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman To Meet PSU Bank CEOs On Friday
The meeting will review PSU banks’ performance and discuss ways to increase credit growth and propel the Indian economy.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will meet the chief executive officers of public sector banks on Friday to review their performance and discuss ways to increase credit growth and propel the Indian economy, people aware of the development said.
The finance minister’s meeting with PSU bank CEOs will also review the progress of resolution of non-performing accounts under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, the people added. It is also expected to take a stock of the banking sector, and discuss ways to improve its financial health.
The meeting will be the first such in the second term of Narendra Modi government. Secretaries of the revenue department and the corporate affairs ministry will attend the PSU bank CEOs’ meeting, a finance ministry official said.
Earlier, in a reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, the finance ministry had said that PSU banks have recovered Rs 3.59 lakh crore of NPAs, including a record recovery of Rs 1.23 lakh crore during 2018-19. The provision coverage ratio has increased from 46 percent in March 2015 to 74.2 percent in March 2019, it had said.
The country’s largest bank, State Bank of India, has loans worth Rs 1.76 lakh crore classified as NPA till march 2019.
PSU banks had 8,582 wilful defaulters as on March 31, as against 7,535 a year earlier, the government said. As much as Rs 7,654 crore has been recovered from wilful defaulter accounts in the last five financial years.