Public sector banks' NPAs have doubled, says staff association

The gross non-performing assets in public sector banks have nearly doubled last financial year, alleged the All India Bank Employees Association, which has gone public with the names of the defaulters.

The association added that the government and RBI were not taking tough measures to recover

bad loans.

According to the figures, the NPAs in public sector banks has risen from Rs 2.78 lakh crore in 2014-15 to Rs 5.39 lakh crore in 2015-16. It has also released the names of 5,600 wilful defaulters.

“People should know who are the defaulters, as the loan amount is given from public money. When poor borrowers are harassed, corporate defaulters are given all concessions. The number of wilful defaulters is also on the rise,” alleged CH Venkatachalam, general secretary of the association.

He said that there are 3,192 accounts of wilful defaulters in nationalised banks (excluding SBI and associate banks), who have defaulted on loans worth Rs 28,775 crore.

Similarly, there are 1,546 accounts in SBI and associate banks that have defaulted on loans worth Rs 18,576 crore. In the case of private banks, there are 792 bank accounts that have defaulted on loans worth Rs 10,250 crore.