New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will meet heads of PSU banks on November 23 to discuss various issues, including bad loans and credit flow to productive sectors of the economy. The performance review meeting of public sector banks (PSBs) on November 23 will also take stock of the credit flow to productive sectors to spur economy and review of 'Indradhanush' plan, the seven-point agenda to revive the fortunes of PSBs, sources said.
The government in August announced seven-point agenda, including Rs 70,000 crore capital infusion in PSBs in four-year period starting with Rs 25,000 crore in the current fiscal and measures to de-stress the banks of NPAs by introducing governance reforms. The gross NPA of the PSBs rose to 6.03 per cent at the end of June 2015 as against 5.20 per cent in March 2015.
According to sources, the meeting is expected to review credit offtake by sectors such as home, education and corporates as well as the progress made under the Jan Dhan Yojana and Prime Minister's social security schemes, among other issues. The meeting will also take stock of various measures taken by state-owned banks in the aftermath of Rs 6,100-crore Bank of Baroda black money remittance case to check recurrence of such incidence.
Jaitley is expected to review the interest rate cut by banks following reduction in key policy rate by RBI in September. RBI in its September bi-monthly monetary policy review had cut interest rate by 0.5 per cent, much higher than that popular expectations for a rate cut of 25 basis points. The benchmark repurchase (repo) rate has subsequently come down from 7.25 per cent to 6.75 per cent, the lowest in four-and-a-half years.
The Finance Minister is expected to review the progress of three social security schemes namely Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY), Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY) and Atal Pension Yojana (APY) among others. He will also review the progress made with regard to Micro Units Development & Refinance Agency (MUDRA).
