The Finance Ministry said on Monday that the stock of non-performing assets (NPAs) in public sector banks (PSBs) reduced in the April-June quarter.
In a presentation, Rajiv Kumar, Secretary, Financial Services, said the stock of NPAs are ‘no longer rising’ as it has reduced by ₹21,000 crore in the first quarter which also saw a record cash recovery of ₹36,551 crore, or 49% of the total recovery made in entire 2017-18 which was ₹74,562 crore.
The Ministry pointed out to the healthy provision coverage ratio of 63.7% as at June end.
Credit to MSMEs
The Ministry also said credit to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) rose 26.7% for loans less than ₹10 lakh, 21.4% for loans between ₹10 lakh and ₹50 lakh and 16.9% for loans of ₹50 lakh to ₹1 crore. Overall credit growth in this segment stood at 10.49% year-on-year in the first quarter.
Indian banks, particularly PSBs, had been witnessing a rise in NPAs for more than three years now with gross NPAs touching 15.6% as at March end, according to RBI data.
