Dena Bank is awaiting clearance from the MoF to reduce its surplus work force by at least 1,100 employees. In an exclusive interview to The Financial Express, Dena Bank general manager, Purshottam Kumar said that the proposal of the bank is on the lines of Kohli committee's recommendations on VRS for nationalised banks. He, however, declined to divulge more details of the proposed voluntary retirement scheme to be offered to its employees.

Giving details of the priorities of the bank, Purushottam Kumar said that reducing non-performing assets (NPA) was high on the bank's agenda. It may be mentioned that the NPA of the bank shot up from the level of Rs 750 crore in 1998-99 to Rs 1400 crore in March 2000. He added that considering the high level of NPA, the bank would have to focus its efforts to recover bad debts from the willful defaulters and adopt a cautious approach in sanctioning new credit to the commercial borrowers.

Kumar clearly stated that the cautious approach of the bank would not hamper priority sector lendings, export finance and loans to the weaker sections.

As a part of cost cutting measures, Dena Bank is also planning to close down 20 loss making branches but not at the cost of retrenchment of staff.

Employees of the loss making branches will be transferred to the viable branches,he added.

According to Kumar, the bank has an excess staff of around 300 in Gujarat. With a view to utilising this excess manpower, the bank is contemplating opening of some new branches in the state. He also stated that improving customer satisfaction is also on top priority Kumar informed that computerised programme of the bank will add value to customer services. At present out of 1,170 branches, computerisation programme in nearly 500 branches has already been completed.

Meanwhile, the bank registered a net profit of Rs 63 crore in the year ended March 31, 2000. For the current year, the bank targeted a net profit of Rs 100 crore.