In India, NPA is viewed as criminal: SBI Chief Arundhati Bhattacharya

State Bank of India (SBI) chairwoman Arundhati Bhattacharya speaks during an interview at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), Russia, June 2, 2017. REUTERS/Grigory Dukor - RTX38O0R

With the Indian banking industry bearing the brunt of huge non-performing assets (NPAs) waiting for resolution, State Bank of India (SBI) chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya today said that NPA is treated as criminal in the country.

"In India NPA is treated as criminal, which it should not be. There is no permission for failures. Permission to fail is not given by the society. But failures will take place", she said at a FICCI session here.

The SBI chief, which was in the process of making NPA resolutions of large corporate accounts, said that when loans were given when the GDP growth was 8.5 percent it was not expected that the accounts would not turn bad.

"But the GDP growth had fallen to four per cent which resulted in piling up of huge NPAs in the banking sector", Bhattacharya viewed.

Bhattacharya said these accounts were five percent of the whole lot.