NEW DELHI: Public sector undertaking (PSU) banks have written off loans worth 1,06,170 crore in the last five years, Parliament was informed on Tuesday. “The RBI (Reserve bank of India) data reporting system does not collate data on the number of account holder having more than 1 crore, whose loans were written off,” minister of state for finance Jayant Sinha said in written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

The amount of bad loans written off or restructured by the PSU banks has more than doubled in the last three years ending March 2014 to 42,447 crore. The rise in bad loans is being attributed to slowdown in the economy which slipped to below 5% in the two consecutive financial years—2012-13 and 2013-14.

The loans written off/compromised by PSU banks rose from 20,752 crore in 2011-12 to 32,992 crore in 2012-13 and further to 42,447 crore in 2013-14, according to RBI data. In a separate reply, Sinha said, “a total of 1,600 wilful defaulters (non-suit filed accounts) of 25 lakh and above as on 31 March 2014, have been declared by the banks.” A robust mechanism for early detection of signs of distress, prompt restructuring in the case of all viable accounts, taking to recourse to legal mechanisms like Lok Adalats etc. are methods of recovery of loans, he said.

RBI has issued instructions to banks to review slippages in asset classification in the borrower accounts with outstanding 5 crore and above by the board of directors of the bank and review NPA (non-performing assets) accounts which have registered recoveries of 1 crore and above, he said. The government has advised public sector banks to constitute a board level committee for monitoring of NPAs and recovery, he added.

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