Ficci to `help' banks in NPA recovery

Ficci to `help' banks in NPA recovery
ENS ECONOMIC BUREAU

Chennai, July 13: The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) is willing to extend all necessary help to banks and financial institutions in recovering their dues from wilful defaulters in the corporate sector.

Also, the existence of only one development bank catering to project finance is a matter of grave concern to FICCI, he said. The federation is also working with various government departments critical to the industry, like taxation and customs, to facilitate their computerisation, he added.

He expressed concern over developmental banks resorting to granting of loans for the purchase of consumer durables including cars and domestic appliances, which, he said, would lead to dearth of funds for financing new projects.

Action plan for weak banks

NEW DELHI: A three-point action plan to revitalise weak public sector banks will be ready by this month end, a top finance ministry official said today. The action plan includes an attractive voluntary retirement scheme and recapitalisation of the weak banks, economic affairs secretary EAS Sarma told reporters. The three weak banks are United Commercial Bank, Indian Bank and Union Bank of India.

Regarding the VRS schemes for other public sector banks, Sarma ruled out any budgetary support saying a scheme was being worked out in which banks could lend money for VRS schemes. Sarma said a separate financial reconstruction authority for each of the weak banks was proposed to be set up and RBI was working out the details of a legislation for this.