Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, on Monday, expressed concern over 215 stalled projects, with an investment of Rs 7 lakh crore, in sectors such as power, coal, iron, steel and road transport.
Talking to reporters after a review meeting of public sector banks here, Chidambaram said: “The real problem is in roads and power sectors. There are 68 new projects in the road sector and 40 in the power sector.”
“We have to get them going,” he said, adding that the Ministries concerned would look into the matter so that the projects are accelerated.
The Minister said that banks have disbursed about Rs 54,000-crore loans towards the 215 projects.
Further, there are 126 new projects in the said five sectors for which the outlay is Rs 3.55 lakh crore and the amount sanctioned by banks against these was Rs 43,000 crore. On non-performing assets (NPAs), Chidambaram said: “Promoters have a duty to bring additional capital, and companies have the duty to pay the loans. Banks have understood the message.”
His statement comes in the backdrop of liquor baron Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher Airlines not being able to repay loans of over Rs 7,000 crore to a consortium of 17 banks.
NPAs was one of the key issues that was discussed at the meeting. The Minister asked the banks to take stern action to recover bad debts while appreciating the fact that recovery of NPAs had improved in the last month. Gross NPAs of Government-owned banks rose to Rs 1.55 lakh crore, as on December 2012, from Rs 71,080 crore as on March 2011.
Money laundering
On recent allegations of money laundering against three private banks — ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank — Chidambaram said his Ministry and the Reserve Bank of India were investigating the matter, adding that there was no complaint against any public sector bank. But, on a cautious note, he said, “I think before we can come to any conclusion (no PSU banks), I must have all the facts. I think the Secretary, DFS (Department of Financial Services) is looking at it closely,” he said.