statesman news service
New Delhi, 3 July
Worried over ever growing bad loans, Union finance minister Mr P Chidambaram has asked banks to target top defaulters and taken penal action against them.  
“You focus on the top defaulters, as well as keep an eye on the top non-performing accounts… They are keeping a close watch on the top 30 non-performing accounts in each bank and action will be taken on the defaulters,” Mr Chidambaram said.
Briefing the media after meeting the heads of public sector banks and financial institutions here, Mr Chidambaram said it is the 30 top non-performing accounts which account for bulk of the NPAs.
Non-performing assets of banks have been on the rise for the past several months due to slowdown in the economy. The gross NPAs of some public sector banks, including State Bank of India and Punjab National Bank have crossed four per cent of the total assets at the end of March 2013. Gross NPAs of PSU banks have risen from Rs 71,080 crore as on March 2011, to Rs 1.55 lakh crore as on December 2012. He said he has asked banks to review their lending rates.  
“Reduction in base rate will be powerful stimulus to boost credit growth,” he said adding that unless the base rate is cut, interest rates cannot be brought down.  
While the the RBI has reduced the policy rates by 1.25 per cent since January 2012, to prop up growth, banks have lowered the lending rates by only 0.30 per cent during the period.  
At the meeting with the bank chiefs, Mr Chidambaram reviewed the credit to agriculture, MSME sector, housing, education, minority communities and also financial inclusion.
Asked about discussion on gold loan with bank chiefs in the meeting, Mr Chidambaram quipped: “You want gold loan, chances are there you won’t get it”.
Replying to a query on new bank licences for which 26 entities have applied before the Reserve Bank, the finance minister said “every guideline has to be satisfied”. He, however, said it is the RBI which will give the licences and the government will have no say in it.
According to Mr Chidambaram public sector banks plan to recruit 50,000 new hands and open 10,000 new branches around the country during 2013-14.
“This year public sector banks are expected to add 10,000 branches of which 2,000 are to be by Regional Rural Banks. Correspondingly there will be recruitment. In fact all the banks put together are expected to recruit some 50,000 persons in the current year,” he said.
The PSU banks had a sanctioned strength of about eight lakh employees as on 31 March 2012. They hired around 63,000 people in the last financial year.
The country&’s largest bank SBI alone recruited 20,000 clerical staff and 1,200 officer level employees. Other PSU banks hired 22,000 officers and 20,000 clerical staff.
There were 84,489 vacancies at various levels in the state-owned banks at the end of 2010-11.