Public sector banks write off over Rs 1.14 lakh crore in last 3 fiscals

State-owned banks wrote off over Rs 1.14 lakh crore debt during the last three financial years which was more than the amount written off in the previous nine fiscals.

"The public sector banks have written off (including compromise settlements) Rs 1,14,181 crore of debt during financial years 2013, 2014 and 2015.

"This amount is higher than written off amount by PSBs during the previous nine financial years from 2004 to 2012," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha.

He further said that non-performing asset (NPA) accounts are written-off for clearing the balance sheet and enhancing profitability after full provisions have been made within the framework of RBI guidelines and Board approved loan recovery policy of the concerned bank.

"It is resorted to after exhausting various avenues of recovery. However, in case of technical write-off, the recovery efforts continue as accounts remain the books of branches," Jaitley added.

The Gross NPAs of PSBs have moved from Rs 1,17,262 crore as at end March 2012 to Rs 2,78,468 crore at end March 2015.

Banks are required to report top 50 NPAs of each bank under off-site monitoring system.

RBI has established Central Repository of Information on Large Credits (CRILC) wherein banks are required to report credit information to RBI on large borrowers having aggregate exposure of more than Rs 5 crore.