Ahmedabad

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said non performing assets of public sector banks would come down gradually over the next two-three quarters.

Asked about what steps were being taken to reduce NPAs, Jaitley, who was here to brief media about achievements of the NDA government in the last one year, said he is working on it.

“When we came to power, the ratio of NPAs of public sector banks was 6 per cent. Ideally, it should be 2 to 2.5 per cent.

Banks are still struggling to come out of this situation. Now, in the quarter ended March 31, it came down to 5.2 per cent, which was 5.84 per cent at the beginning of quarter.

“So we are not claiming that situation has completely reversed. We believe that the situation will gradually improve after two-three subsequent quarters. We are also bringing professionals into the banking system and appointing them as directors,” he said.

Commenting on media claims that majority of Jan Dhan accounts do not have any deposits, Jaitley said media was not aware of the actual purpose of these accounts.

“The primary objective of Jan Dhan Yojana is to open bank accounts for those who don’t have even one rupee. I think media doesn’t know this.

“Government will deposit money into these accounts in the form of subsidy, pensions, wages under MNREGA scheme and all such government payments. And this has already started,” he added.

PTI