With only 0.91% NPAs, Punjab coop banks rank 3rd in country: Min in RS

With a mere 0.91 per cent gross NPA percentage, Punjab ranks third in the country in terms of fewer non-performing assets (NPAs) in cooperative banks as of March 31, 2024, according to data provided by Pankaj Chaudhary, Union Minister of State for Finance.

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He was replying to questions raised by Rajya Sabha MP Sanjeev Arora during the ongoing winter session of the Parliament.

Jammu and Kashmir has the highest gross NPA percentage at 55.52 per cent, while Telangana has the lowest at 0.08 per cent.

“According to the data provided by the Minister, cooperative banks had a total gross NPA amount of 14,537.42 crore as of March 31, 2024,” Arora said in a statement issued here on Friday.

Of this, cooperative banks in Kerala have NPAs worth Rs 5.09 lakh, Maharashtra cooperative banks have Rs 3.08 lakh NPAs, while those in Karnataka have Rs 1.13 lakh NPAs.

In the region, NPAs of cooperative banks in Himachal Pradesh stood at Rs 40,492.39, Jammu and Kashmir stood at Rs 30,338.91, New Delhi at Rs 634.36 and Chandigarh at Rs 355.4. Interestingly, cooperative banks in Haryana have no NPA amount.

The Minister further answered that as reported by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and Reserve Bank of India (RBI), seven state cooperative banks (SCBs), 424 urban cooperative banks (UCBs) and 120 district central cooperative banks (DCCBs) have gross non-performing assets (GNPAs) higher than 10 per cent.

The minister further mentioned in his reply that RBI and NABARD have implemented several measures to strengthen the financial health of cooperative banks. The measures implemented in UCBs include increased housing loan limits; phased approach for UCBs to comply with Priority Sector Lending target of 75% of adjusted net bank credit (ANBC) or credit equivalent amount of off-balance sheet exposure by March 31, 2026.

The measures implemented in rural cooperative banks include the RBI’s notification on June 8, 2023, to widen the scope of prudential framework for stressed assets. The RBI has also allowed state cooperative banks and DCCBs to issue new capital instruments. RCBs have been permitted to extend finance to commercial real estate - residential housing (CRE-RH) sector within the existing housing finance limit of 5 per cent of their total assets.