Interim Finance Minister Piyush Goyal will meet the chiefs of PSU Banks on Monday. The finance minister will take stock of banking sector and will discuss ways to improve their financial health.

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Economists hold this meeting of great significance as it comes just three days ahead of the Budget 2019-20. According to Zee Media's sources, the meeting will review the credit flow to MSMEs, agriculture and retail sectors.

FM Goyal will also discuss recovery of non-performing assets (NPAs) with the PSU banks bosses. Public sector banks (PSBs) have seen decline in bad loans by over Rs 23,000 crore from a peak of Rs 9.62 lakh crore in March 2018 due to various initiatives taken by the government.

At the same time, PSBs have also made a record in recovery of Rs 60,726 crore in the first half of the current financial year, which is more than double the amount recovered in the corresponding period last year.

According to the latest finance ministry data, non-NPA accounts overdue by 31 to 90 days (Special Mention Accounts 1 & 2) of PSBs have declined by 61 per cent over five successive quarters - from Rs 2.25 lakh crore as of June 2017 to Rs 0.87 lakh crore in September 2018. 

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das and DFS Secretary will also be present.

Piyush Goyal, who was given additional charge of the finance ministry last Wednesday as Arun Jaitley is away to the US for a treatment, is expected to discuss a host of issues including credit offtake and bad loan position of lenders.

In his first stint as finance minister for 100 days last year, Goyal was instrumental in setting up a committee headed by non-executive chairman of Punjab National Bank Sunil Mehta to examine whether creation of an asset reconstruction company or asset management company to help in faster resolution of stressed assets.