No relief to bank loan defaulters: Government

NEW DELHI: Ruling out any relief to bank loan defaulters owing Rs one crore and above, government today said all efforts will be made to recover the dues from such companies and individuals.

Maintaining that the government was under no pressure to waive loans of Rs one crore and above, Minister of State for Finance Namo Narain Meena said in Lok Sabha that no relief will be given to defaulters.

"Recovery is an on-going process. All loans will be recovered," Meena said during Question Hour.

He said 2,492 account-holders owing Rs one crore and above had defaulted in 2010-11 and the total amount to be recovered is Rs 25,041 crore.

Meena said banks were required to monitor non-performing assets and take steps to bring them down through recovery and other channels. RBI also monitors the NPA levels in banks.

"This aspect is reviewed during Annual Financial Inspections and monitored on an ongoing basis through regulatory returns submitted by banks and periodical meetings with banks," Meena said.

The banks are also advised by RBI from time to time to take effective measures to strengthen the credit appraisal and post-credit monitoring to arrest the incidence of fresh NPAs and adopt a more realistic approach to reduce the existing and chronic NPAs in all categories.

Banks resort to write-off only after exhausting all other possible avenues for recovery or when the asset coverage is not enough, Meena said. Rs 23,364.62 crore was written off in 2010-11.