RBI lists 240 new accounts for NPA tag

New Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has sent a fresh list of 240 accounts to state-owned banks asking them to recognise these loans as NPAs, if not already done.
The new set of accounts that could be classified as bad loans include credit to Reliance Naval, JSPL and Ratnagiri Gas.
The RBI directive comes as it has started the second round of asset quality review (AQR). The central bank wants to know if lenders have classified these accounts and have provided provisions against them, sources said.
The Reserve Bank had launched AQR in the second half of 2015 under which its inspectors checked the books of all banks and identified bad assets.
The second round AQR assumes extra significance because the RBI is asking banks to recognise them as NPA from a back date, if they haven’t identified them as NPAs already. The NPA classification with retrospective effect would mean higher provisions which would impact their lending potential and bottom lines.
Sources said yet another list of NPAs could be released in September quarter because a new bunch of NPAs are being reported. The asset quality checks have resulted in 11 public sector banks being put under the regulator’s prompt corrective action framework.
Some of the accounts that figure in the fresh list include Teesta Uria, Tamil Nadu Genco, Lalitpur Power Genco, JP Power Ventures, Haldia Petrochem, Lanco Kondapalli, Rolta India, Jindal India Thermal Teesta Uria, Tamil Nadu Genco, Lalitpur Power Genco, JP Power Ventures, Haldia Petrochem, Lanco Kondapalli, Rolta India, Jindal India Thermal, Lanco Vidarbha, GMR Kamlanga, Patel Engineering, Juniper Hotels, Patna Highway, KSK Mahanadi, Lanco Res Intl, Lanco Babandh, Habua Power, Udupi Power, Bhavnagar Energy. Most of them have already been identified as non-performing assets (NPAs).
The RBI has sent the list of stressed accounts to each bank individually and soug-ht details regarding asset cl-assification and provisioning. Lenders are in the proc-ess of submitting their resp-onses to the regulator’s queries. Many in the list have been identified as NPAs but the RBI wants to ensure NPAs are not out of sight on classification, a source said.
The income recognition and asset classification (IRAC) norms require banks to set aside 15 per cent of a loan exposure as provisioning in the first year of an account being classified as NPA. The amount of provisioning increases with each year that the account continues to be an NPA. By the fourth year of a bad loan, banks are required to fully provide against the underlying loan amount.