Indian banks have NPAs worth Rs 300,611 crore as of December 2014, according to the government statement in Lok Sabha. Of this, Rs 2,62,402 crore belonged to the public sector banks and Rs 38,209 to private sector banks, minister of state for Finance Jayant Sinha informed the members during the question hour. The total gross advances of nationalized banks as on December 2014 stood at Rs 46,49,843 crore while the total advances of private sector banks stood at Rs 16,77,875 crore. Stalled projects, sluggish domestic growth in the last few years and slowdown in the global economy are the key reasons for the increase of NPAs, he said. The minister told the house that RBI has taken a number of steps for recovery of NPAs that include having a board approved loan recovery policy, putting in place an effective mechanism for information sharing for sanction of loans and taking recourse to legal mechanism.
