Indian Bank MD & CEO Shanti Lal Jain says that they are in comfortable position as cash recovery is more than the fresh slippages.

Indian Bank is planning to recover bad debts of ₹7,000 crore in FY25 against ₹8,800 crore recovered in the year ago period, said its top executive.

“Last time, we recovered about ₹8,800 crore. But this number may come down. We will be making a recovery of around ₹7,000 crore,” MD & CEO Shanti Lal Jain said at the press meet.

Asserting that they would be recovering about ₹1,750 per quarter, he said in the first quarter they recovered ₹1,937 crore. Cash recovery was more than the fresh slippages of ₹1,928 crore.

Elaborating further, he said “MSME accounted for slippage of ₹909 crore, followed by agri ₹597 crore and retail ₹422 crore. from retail.” He added: “We also recovered ₹300 crore. In Q1, we contained the slippage ratio from 1.57% to 1.50%.”

On the fund raising, he said “The bank is adequately capitalised. Besides, they had already obtained approvals from the board and shareholders to raise ₹5,000 crore through equity, ₹2,000 crore through Tier II Bonds and ₹5,000 crore of infra bonds in FY25.

To a question, how much they are planning to recover through Asset Reconstruction Company, he said that last year the bank recovered ₹464 crore and this fiscal it plans to recover ₹400 crore.

Mr. Jain said “the bank is targeting 8-10% growth in deposits and 11-13% in credit. In Q1, it achieved 10% and 12% respectively.”

Regarding branch expansion, he said last year 79 branches, and this year target was 100, of which approval has been given to open 30 branches soon.

The bank’s RAM and corporate sector advances is in the ratio of 62:38. Mr. Jain said that they would like to maintain the same ratio as the risk is spread and it gives good revenue.

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das presented a memento to Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a ceremony to mark 90 years of the Reserve Bank of India in Mumbai on April 1, 2024.
| Photo Credit: PTI

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 1 said India needs to become economically self-reliant in the next ten years so that the nation is not impacted much by global factors.

Speaking on the 90th anniversary of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the Prime Minister also said a lot of work will be generated for everyone once the BJP-led NDA assumes office for the third term in June. “We have to increase India’s economic self-reliance,” he said.

Mr. Modi said the banking sector has become profitable and credit growth has been increasing because of efforts taken by his government and the RBI in the last decade. He added that the gross NPAs of public sector banks, which was around 11.25% in 2018, dropped to less than 3% by September 2023.

The “twin-balance sheet” problem is now a thing of the past, Mr. Modi said, adding that banks are now registering a credit growth of 15%. The RBI has played a significant role in all these accomplishments, he said.