SBI’s farm loan NPAs rises to Rs 13,545 cr in Apr—Sept

State Bank of India’s non- performing assets (NPAs) in the farm loans segment rose nearly four fold to Rs 13,545 crore in the first six months of this fiscal, Parliament was informed on Tuesday.

During the April-September period of 2010-11, NPAs in the agriculture segment were Rs 3,718 crore, the Minister of State for Finance, Mr Namo Narain Meena said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

SBI’s overall NPAs increased to Rs 33,946 crore as on September 30, 2011, from Rs 23,205 crore in the same period last fiscal.

Mr Meena added that SBI has taken a number of steps to tackle this situation, including attention to restructuring/ reschedulement of eligible accounts, which are technically viable and economically feasible, and setting up account tracking centres to focus on prevention of probable NPAs slipping into NPAs.

He further said, “All recovery measures, already in vogue, are being seriously reviewed and followed up. Credit—cum— recovery camps are being organised. Involving business correspondents, business facilitators and self—help group in recovery of agricultural NPAs. Performance of enforcement agent is being followed up for quick recovery of overdues.”