RBI at advanced stage of preparing top loan defaulters' list: Jaitley

Plagued by huge bad loans problem, the government on Monday said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is in an advanced stage of preparing a list of debtors whose cases will be taken up through the insolvency route for a speedy resolution.

"RBI is at a fairly advanced stage of preparing a list of those debtors where resolution is required through Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) process, and you will be shortly hearing about it," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told reporters after the morning session of a meeting here with heads of public sector banks called to review the situation on Non-Performing Assets (NPAs). 

RBI has constituted a committee which is working on resolution of NPAs. 

"There are 81 cases that have been filed under IBC. Of these, 18 cases have been initiated by financial creditors. These are already before the National Company law Tribunal (NClT) and since the bulk of NPAs, about 70 per cent, are either in consortium or multiple banking arrangement, a speedy resolution is required," he said.

RBI Deputy Governor S.S. Mundra, who was also present at the meeting, said RBI has already collected information of bad loan accounts from banks. 

"Right now, the RBI is discussing on it. Information has already been collected on such accounts from banks," Mundra said.

Jaitley said that at the review meeting, various challenges to credit growth and their resolution were considered as the public sector banks' state finances continued to be the major concern. 

"Challenge with regard to credit growth was discussed and resolution also came up for consideration. In the morning session, the most important item was with the state of finances of public sector banks (PSBs) and NPA resolution," he said.

In the detailed presentations made at the meeting, it emerged that in 2016-17, PSBs have made a stable operating profit of Rs 1.5 lakh crore. Subject to various provisioning requirements, their net profit stood at Rs 574 crore. 

Further, a review of financial inclusion schemes like Mudra Yojana, Stand Up India and cyber security was also done at the meeting here.

Detailed discussions on movement towards digitalisation were also held and a presentation was made in this regard.

Since the banking industry will also be liable to pay the Goods and Services Tax (GST), in the afternoon session the bankers will meet Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia and other officials of certain departments of governments, Jaitley said.

When asked if the government was considering further consolidation of public sector banks, Jaitley said efforts were on in that direction. 

"Consolidation was not on agenda in today's meeting. But we are actively working in that direction. I can't give further details."