New Delhi: The government on Thursday said it will decide about capital
infusion in public sector banks in the next 10-15 days as stability is
returning to the market.
"Very soon now, now that markets are
more or less, I see certain amount of confidence in the market and
things appear to be stabilising. So anytime now (decision on capital
infusion) within the next week, 10 days
or fortnight," Financial
Services Secretary Rajiv Takru said here.
The government has earmarked Rs 14,000 crore for capital infusion in the public sector banks during the current fiscal.
Asked
if RBI has more room for rate cut following the status-quo on the
stimulus programme of Fed, Takru said, "looking at every event in
isolation is not fair.
"This (Fed move) would be one of the
factors which the RBI will now take into account...So now this (Fed
action) will be considered and we will know soon enough."
On the
rising bad loans, he said: "It's not a question of being worrisome but
it doesn't make us happy...It is not that the banks have got into
trouble or they are in any kind of danger or anything like that. Banks
are as secure as possible."
He is holding a meeting with heads of public sector banks on September 27 to review NPA situation.
Recently,
Finance Minister P Chidambaram had said all public sector banks are
meeting Basel III requirements for capitalisation, though four of them
-- Indian Overseas Bank, IDBI Bank, Bank of Maharashtra and Dena Bank --
have Tier-1 capital below 8 per cent.
The government will take
steps to ensure that these banks have 8 per cent Tier-1 capital by the
end of the current fiscal year, Chidambaram had said.
Other
lenders like SBI has made a request of Rs 4,000 crore, Punjab National
Bank Rs 1,500 crore while Bangalore-based Canara Bank has sought Rs
1,000 crore during the current fiscal.
Implementation of Basel
III capital regulations envisage enhancing requirement of core equity
capital by banks due to higher capital ratios. The Basel III capital
ratios will be fully phased in as on March 31, 2018.
The government had infused about Rs 20,117 crore in public sector banks during 2010-11, and Rs 12,000 crore in 2011-12.
PTI