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Non-performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans of banks have declined by Rs 61,180 crore to Rs 8.34 lakh crore at the end of March 31, 2021, as result of various steps taken by the government, Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat K Karad said on Monday.

Scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) were carrying NPAs worth Rs 8.96 lakh crore on their balance sheet at the end of March 2020.

“Primarily as a result of transparent recognition of stressed assets as NPAs, gross NPAs of SCBs, as per RBI data on global operations, rose from Rs 3,23,464 crore as on 31.3.2015, to Rs 10,36,187 crore on 31.3.2018, and as a result of Government’s strategy of recognition, resolution, recapitalisation and reforms, have since declined to Rs 9,33,779 crore on 31.3.2019, Rs. 8,96,082 crore as on 31.3.2020, and further to Rs 8,34,902 crore (provisional data) as on 31.3.2021,” he said.

Karad in a written reply to the Lok Sabha said COVID-19 Regulatory Package announced by RBI permitted lending institutions to grant a moratorium of six months on payment of all instalments falling due between March 1 and August 31, 2020, in respect of all term loans and to defer the recovery of interest for the same period in respect of working capital facilities.

Replying to another question, Karad said, gross NPAs of public sector banks (PSBs) peaked at Rs 8,95,601 crore on March 31, 2018.

As a result of Government’s strategy of recognition, resolution, recapitalisation and reforms, NPAs have since declined to Rs 7,39,541 crore on March 31, 2019, Rs 6,78,317 crore on March 31, 2020 and further to Rs 6,16,616 crore as on March 31, 2021 (provisional data).

“The net NPAs have displayed a similar trend, increasing initially from Rs 1,24,095 crore on 31.3.2014 to Rs 2,14,549 crore on 31.3.2015, Rs 3,24,372 crore on 31.3.2016, Rs 3,82,087 crore on 31.3.2017 and peaking at Rs 4,54,221 on 31.3.2018, and declining thereafter to Rs 2,84,689 crore on 31.3.2019, Rs 2,31,551 crore on 31.3.2020 and further to Rs 1,97,360 crore as on 31.3.2021 (provisional data),” he said.

Throughout this period, he said, PSBs continued to post aggregate operating profits of Rs 1,37,151 crore, Rs 1,58,994 crore, Rs 1,55,603 crore, Rs 1,49,819 crore, Rs 1,74,640 crore in the financial year 2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20 respectively.

“However, primarily due to continuing ageing provision for NPAs, they made aggregate provision for NPAs and other contingencies of Rs 1,55,226 crore, Rs 1,70,371 crore, Rs 2,40,956 crore, Rs 2,17,481 crore and Rs 2,00,404 crore respectively in the said years, resulting in aggregate net losses of Rs 17,993 crore, Rs 11,389 crore, Rs 85,370 crore, Rs 66,636 crore and Rs 25,941 crore respectively and returning to profitability thereafterwith aggregate net profit of Rs 31,820crore in FY2020-21,” he said.

At the same time comprehensive steps were taken to control and to effect recovery in NPAs, which enabled PSBs to recover Rs 5,01,479 crore over the last six financial years, he added.

In a reply to another question, Karad said overall credit growth of Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) has remained positive for 2020-21 despite contraction in GDP (-7.3 per cent) due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

‘Gross Loans and Advances – Outstanding’ of SCBs increased from Rs 109.19 lakh crore as of March 31, 2020 to Rs 113.99 lakh crore as of March 31, 2021, he said.

Further, he said, as per RBI data of loans to agriculture and allied activities, micro, small & medium enterprises, housing and vehicle have witnessed a year-on-year growth of 12.3 per cent, 8.5 per cent, 9.1 per cent and 9.5 per cent respectively during the year.

Ability of PSBs to further increase lending is evident through Capital to Risk Weighted Assets Ratio which stood at 14.04 per cent as of March 31, 2021, as against regulatory requirement of 10.875 per cent, he added.



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RBI’s FAQs addresses some key concerns

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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has clarified that its “one year look back” stipulation introduced in its April 27 circular on appointment of statutory auditors in public sector banks, Urban Cooperative Banks and NBFCs will only be applicable prospectively, that is, from financial year 2022-23.

This look back stipulation was introduced to ensure that the audit firm had not provided any non-audit services to the Group entities during the 12 months period before the audit firm was appointed in the bank or NBFC concerned.

RBI clarifies

The RBI has now, in the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) on the April 27 circular, clarified that this look-back condition will not apply for auditor appointments for FY 2021-22.

In another significant clarification, the RBI has modified the earlier April 27 prescribed blanket kind of restriction on appointment of audit firms as auditors of banks and NBFCs in situations where the concerned audit firm had provided audit or non-audit service to any group entity of that bank or NBFC.

Cap on assignments

While earlier this norm was seen to be applicable across the Group, the RBI has now in the FAQ made it clear that this restriction does not apply to all group entities, but applies only to entities in the Group that are RBI regulated.

Also, the central bank has in the ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ issued on its April 27 circular made it clear that the cap (upper limit) on number of assignments an audit firm can undertake in a year in respect of banks, UCBs and NBFCs are applicable for audit of all RBI regulated entities, irrespective of their asset size. It maybe recalled that April 27 circular of RBI had stipulated that an audit firm cannot do audit of more than four commercial banks, eight NBFCs and eight UCBs in a year.

Experts’ speak

Jamil Khatri, Partner, BSR& Co LLP, said the concerns of the industry in the areas of the short rotation period, the requirements for joint audit and the cap on the number of audits that can be done by an audit firm, have not been addressed in the current set of clarifications.

Amarjit Chopra, former CA Institute President, said that RBI’s clarification on the one year look back norm and also on the group entity aspect is quite pragmatic and will provide flexibility in the appointment of auditors.

Ashok Haldia, former Secretary of the CA Institute, said that the FAQ has opened the door for an audit firm engaged in audit/non-audit work of group entity (not regulated by RBI) to be appointed as statutory auditor of any of the RBI regulated entity within the group. However, the board/audit committee may find it challenging to assess and take responsibility that there is no conflict of interest and independence of auditor is ensured, as required in FAQ, as in most cases it may be difficult to disentangle explicit and implicit relationship that exists between group entities. These may find it difficult to justify in case doubt arises in future, he added.

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