Media reports coming in from Himachal Pradesh say NPAs of three cooperative banks of the state have gone up by 4 percent. While the NPAs of State Cooperative Bank, Kangra Central Cooperative Bank and Agriculture and Rural Development Bank went up to 10. 99 percent in June 2018 they soared to a whopping 14.78 percent in the data released in June 2019.
With the increase in NPA the banks are in trouble. The NPA amount of these banks count Rs. 1,578 crore compared to Rs. 1,095 crore last year. Experts said, “If banks do not take serious steps to recover the NPAs, they have to face action from the Reserve Bank of India”.
Kangra Central Cooperative Bank has recorded the highest increase in NPAs. Within a year, the bank’s NPA increased by 5.95 percent, as reported in the media.
The NPA amount of State Co-operative Bank with Scheduled Bank status counts Rs. 494 crore, Kangra Central Cooperative Bank Rs. 932 crore and Agriculture and Rural Development Bank’ Rs. 106.16 crore.
Meanwhile, Principal Secretary Finance Prabodh Saxena said the continuous increase in NPAs of cooperative banks of the state is a matter of concern. He called upon their management to work seriously to improve their debt collection. Their failure to do so would affect their credibility in public, he said.
The NPA of Jogindra Cooperative Bank has reduced compared to the last year.