Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has asked public sector banks to bring down their Non Performing Assets (NPAs). The ratio of gross NPAs to gross advances was up to 5.32 per cent at the end of September as against 4.82 per cent on September-end 2013.
The Finance Minister has also asked these banks to take steps for increasing the flow of credit to various sectors of the economy. He said he expected credit growth to pick-up as large number of projects were queuing up for loans. According to Reserve Bank data, credit growth fell to single-digit figures this fiscal.
Mr. Jaitley was addressing the quarterly review meeting of the heads of public sector banks and financial institutions and the meeting of the Steering Committee of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna (PMJDY) here on Thursday.
The Finance Minister also said that the Government has taken steps to streamline the process of appointment of chief executive officers and executive directors of public sector banks with the aim of introducing objectivity in the process. He said that any external influence would be considered as a disqualification.
The Steering Committee review of the performance of the PMJDY noted that 20 per cent households remain uncovered across districts. >The banks said they would cover these remaining households in sweep mode and also make special efforts to cover the uncovered households in 33 districts where the percentage of coverage is less than 50 per cent. It has been reported that out of 7.46 new accounts opened so far, nearly 75 per cent hold zero balance.
To make the country direct benefits transfers-ready, the committee asked the banks to increase the seeding of Aadhaar number in the accounts and be ready for rolling out the scheme in all the districts from 1st January, 2015.
