All-Out Efforts On To Bring Down Bad Loans of State-Run Banks: Arun Jaitley

New Delhi: Hoping that the non-performing asset (NPA) situation will improve in the coming quarters, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said an all-out effort has been launched to correct the current "unacceptable" level of bad loans in the PSU banks.

"NPAs, which have reached to the present levels are unacceptable. They reached this level partly because of indiscretion, partly because of inaction, partly because of challenges in some sectors of the economy, which were evident through the high NPA in these sectors," he said.

Mr Jaitley was inaugurating 109 new branches and 109 Bunch Note Acceptors (BNA) on the Indian Bank Foundation Day.

Gross Non Performing Assets (NPAs) of public sector unit (PSU) banks at the end of March quarter stood at 5.20 per cent of total advances compared with 5.63 per cent in December.

"All-out efforts have been launched to correct the health and bring NPAs down. The effort by the bank administration, the effort by the government to infuse more capital, the effort to get more finance by divesting (government holding), and then greater discretion and more importantly addressing the concerns of each of (stressed) sectors.

"And I don't have a doubt that over the next few quarters, the banks will be able to address these challenges," he said. 

The Finance Minister said the government's plan to infuse capital into the PSU banks over the next four years will "infuse lot of financial strength" in these banks to deal with the bad loan problems.