"The total NPAs of Indian banking system are expected to be around US $ 6 billions and this is ``peanuts'' compared to NPA levels in some of the countries in the East Asian region," Indian Banks' Association (IBA) chairman A T Pannir Selvam said.

Even assuming that the actual NPAs were double at $ 12 billion as balance sheets of many banks and financial institutions do not reveal the actual figures, they could be managed without any difficulty, Selvam said.

"Fresh accretion of bad loans in the system is very low and many banks are now aware of this problem," said Reserve Bank of India (RBI) deputy governor Jagdish Capoor at the just concluded International Banking Conference here.

He, however, said RBI does not plan to regulate the banks on NPAs. "There are certain prudentialnorms which the RBI issues, it is finally up to the banks to decide whom to lend their money or not," Capoor said.National Stock Exchange managing director R H Patil said the problem was quite serious.

"The hidden NPAs of banks will surface in the coming years and we are in no way insulated from the Asian meltdown," he said. According to him, RBI should perform a pro-active role in dealing with the situation. "RBI needs to be pro-active in the risk containment measure of banks and should continue to issue guidelines on containing bad loans of banks," Patil said adding that risk containment was still alien to many banks in the country.

On the other hand, head of HSBC group in India John Dyfrig felt, the situation in India was totally different and it was safe compared to other countries in the region. According to him, many foreign banks viewed India in a totally different context. Further, RBI governor Bimal Jalan's statement that banks were viewing the problem of NPAs add up to "our comfort", hesaid.

On the hidden NPAs of banks, Capoor said during the last couple of years the range and extent of disclosures have been gradually increasing so as to provide a clearer picture to inform readers of balance sheets. "Banks are now required to disclose the current break-up of the provisions made towards NPAs, depreciation of investments and other purposes, besides, capital adequacy ratio, level of net NPAs," Capoor said.