Friday, May 31, 2013

How long the stake holders of banks and taxpayers tolerate the menace of NPAs and cross subsidise them ?


As it is, there is no system of disciplining the borrowers and they benefit a lot by being non performing borrowers. The banks have to rate the borrowers based on their performance from the very beginning and have to ensure that borrowers  do not violate banks’ disciplinary norms and  they also do not depend on other stakeholders of banks to  take care of them / cross subsidise them  This issue of NPAs can be easily tackled  if banks  create a fund by levying a small penalty  based on the deterioration of borrowers and  banks can also contribute a small sum towards this fund. They can accordingly reduce the provisioning requirements. This levy will work as a disincentive to remain in NPA category. Even SEBI has to  go by this deterioration for all its dealings with the corporates. Government incentives should also be linked to the rating of banks.The rating should be made transparent through various ways by RBI, SEBI, and the Govt. Corporates should  be  made to indicate the rating given by banks in their Balance sheets and the rating has to be certified by the Accountants and Auditors and this rating should be  taken as an important yard stick by the Govt and all other agencies to provide concessions and benefits.    Over a period, this fund generated by the banks would be sufficient to cover / liquidate the non performing loans. Other stake holders of banks particularly depositors and shareholders need not bear the cost of NPAs which is not only illogical but  also not justifiable. It is time depositors and share holders fight the menace of NPAs  and get  relief  from bearing  the cost of NPAs. Ultimately the cost is passed on to tax payers and banks have to be  saved from liquidation as it happened in the case of GTB. Will some one seriously ponder over this?

Dr.T.V.Gopalakrishnan

(This comment in a modified form is published in ET dated 1st June 2013 in response to an Article NPAs  expect to double in two years.)

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