The non-performing assets (NPAs) of all banks, in Karnataka,from 28 lakh accounts was ₹57,070.02 crore as on September 30, 2020.

“Among the sectors with high NPAs was agriculture at ₹17,772.87 crore (from 12.20 lakh accounts), other priority sector advances was ₹11,470.07 crore (4.20 lakh accounts) and non-priority sector advances was ₹17,096.27 crore (7.73 lakh accounts),” a senior official at Karnataka State Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC) said.

Among the private banks, NPAs in Lakshmi Vilas Bank was ₹2,979.10 crore from 15,190 accounts, while those from Yes Bank was₹4,675.23 crore from 946 accounts.

Among the lead banks category, Canara Bank’s total NPAs stood at ₹12,531.66 crore (with 3.41 lakh accounts), State Bank of India at ₹11,663.58 crore (7.37 lakh accounts). Punjab National Bank with ₹4,121.52 crore (12,735 accounts) and Bank of India ₹1,069.85 crore (19,477 accounts).

“SLBC has requested the Karnataka government to provide guidance and assistance for the recovery of bad loans,” the official said.

On the recovery front, banks in the State have recovered ₹460.87 crore so far under Sarfaesi, DRT and Lok Adalats Acts. The recoveries under Sarfaesi were ₹114.25 crore, Debts Recovery Tribunals (DRT) at ₹335.19 crore and Lok Adalat at ₹11.43 crore.

Poor loan disbursal

On September quarter, the banks have disbursed education loans of ₹650 crore, covering 30,102 students, as against the annual financial target of ₹7,725 crore under both priority and non-priority segments.

According to the official, “The performance of banks in lending under education loans, as the percentage of achievement v/s target, was 8.41 per cent. This poor loan disbursal was mainly due to the education sector getting affected due to the Covid-19 pandemic.”

“During the SLBC meet in December 2020, member banks were told to sanction more education loans to eligible students to achieve the target,” he added.

Due to record rains and flooding in the State, banks were asked to restructure loans in natural calamity-affected districts. After the revenue department submitted crop-wise loss data for September quarter, about 230 accounts amounting to ₹5.15 crore were re-structured.