New Delhi: Bad loans or non-performing assets (NPAs) worth Rs. 16.35 lakh crore were written off by banks in the last 10 financial years, the Union government told the parliament on Monday (March 17).

After the Narendra Modi-led BJP government came in power, NPAs worth Rs. 58,786 crore were written off in 2014-15, while the highest amount of Rs. 2,36,265 crore was written off during financial year 2018-19, reported Press Trust of India.

Banks wrote off bad loans worth Rs. 1,70,270 crore during 2023-24.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in a reply in the Lok Sabha that banks write off non-performing assets (NPAs), including those in respect of which full provisioning has been made on completion of four years, as per the guidelines of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and policy approved by banks’ boards.

Sitharaman added that as per RBI data, as on December 31, 2024, scheduled commercial banks had 29 unique borrower companies, which have been classified as NPAs with each of them having outstanding of Rs. 1,000 crore and above.

She added aggregate outstanding in these accounts were Rs. 61,027 crore.

Sitharaman added that banks continue pursuing their recovery actions initiated against borrowers under the various recovery mechanism available to them.

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