Properties worth Rs 15,000 crore sold off

New Delhi: The Union finance ministry on Friday said that the state-owned banks have attached and auctioned 1.7 lakh properties of defaulters raising mere Rs 15,196 crore between FY15 till December 31, 2017. The ministry said that banks are to have a loan recover policy, prepared and duly vetted by their boards. 

According to senior government officials, state-run banks have registered 2,108 FIRs against wilful defaulters as on December 31, 2017, filed 8,462 suits for recovery from wilful defaulters, and initiated action under the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002 in respect of 6,962 cases of wilful defaulters.

Indian banks have written off non-performing loans worth Rs 2.30 lakh crore for the five-year period ended March 2016.

As per data, around  38 loan accounts of wilful defaulters, amounting to Rs 516.04 crore, have been written-off in the financial year 2017-18, till September 2017 by state-run banks.

As per RBI’s data, for scheduled commercial banks, in 2012-13, the combined net profit was Rs 91,164 crore and the write-off amount was Rs 32,992 crore. In FY17, the combined net profit was Rs 43.898 crore, and the write-off amount was Rs 1,08,373 crore.

The ministry had said earlier writing-off of NPAs is a regular exercise conducted by banks to clean up their balance sheet, and achieving taxation efficiency.