What BJP MP Paresh Rawal's interest in bank NPAs reveals

Under the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance government, NPAs zoomed from Rs 309,399 crores as on March 31, 2015, to Rs 728,740 crores as on March 31, 2017, a sharp 135 per cent growth.

According to a report tabled by minister of state for finance, Shiv Pratap Shukla, in the Lok Sabha on April 6 at 11 am, the non-performing assets of scheduled commercial banks in India saw a sharp jump of 125 per cent between the financial years ending March 31, 2015 and March 31, 2017. 

However, the report notes that this sharp jump was on account of the Reserve Bank of India’s special emphasis on asset quality review or AQR (a sort of random check to determine the quality of a bank’s loan book, which gives information about the presence of big borrowers in the banking system), and the database generated under its Central Repository of Information on Large Creditors, according to the report tabled by Shukla. 

The report further adds that with the help of the CRILC database and RBI’s emphasis on asset quality review, it was possible to get a better picture of NPAs and identify new NPAs which were hitherto unnoticed by the banks. 

Shukla’s report was tabled amid din at 11 am -- even as Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan adjourned the house sine die -- in response to questions raised by BJP MPs from Gujarat, Paresh Rawal (Ahmedabad) and Dilipsinh Rathod (Sabarkantha). 

The two MPs had asked for specific information related to rise in NPAs during 2005-14 (under UPA I and UPA II) and the same for the year 2014-18 (under the NDA government). 

Sabarkantha MP Rathod confirmed that he had received a copy of the report tabled by the MoS finance in the morning but refused to comment on the findings of the report, stating that he was on his way to the Delhi airport to fly to Gujarat. 

Repeated efforts to communicate with Ahmedabad East MP Rawal over the phone failed with nobody answering the call. 

A man who answered MoS Shukla’s number said he was busy in a meeting and will be available only after 9 pm. 

Interestingly, according to the table, a copy of which is available with Rediff.com, the rise in gross NPAs ballooned from Rs 58,023 crore for the financial year ending March 2005 and stood at Rs 251,054 for the financial year ending March 2014, a whopping 332 per cent increase. 

This was the period when Dr Manmohan Singh-led United Progressive Alliance I and II was at power at the Centre. 

Under the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance government, NPAs zoomed from Rs 309,399 crores as on March 31, 2015, to Rs 728,740 crores as on March 31, 2017, a sharp 135 per cent growth (the written report states this number at 125 per cent, though). 

Narendra Modi became India’s prime minister on May 26, 2014, that is, during the financial year 2014-15. 

The report also states that “a reduction of 6.4 per cent is noticed in rise in NPAs in the financial year ending March 31, 2017, as compared to a rise in previous financial year”. 

In the financial year 2017-18, the yearly rate of increase in NPAs, till December 2017, was reduced by 1.8 per cent.

Graphic design: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com.

You can see the report tabled by minister of state for finance, Shiv Pratap Shukla here.