Of this, NPAs of public sector banks (PSBs) have crossed the Rs 50,000 crore mark and shot up to Rs 51,710 crore in 1998-99 from Rs 45,653 crore in 1997-98, the Reserve Bank of India said in a report released today. The whopping Rs 6,000 crore jump in gross NPAs of last year was one the steepest rises in the recent years. A lion's share of the NPAs was accounted by the State Bank of India (SBI) group. The largest commercial bank reported a Rs 3,000 crore rise in NPAs to Rs 18,641 crore from Rs 15,525 crore. However, the RBI report did not give individual NPA figures of other commercialbanks.

``The high level of NPAs is really a cause for concern. The quantum of rise in NPAs last year was more when compared to previous years. The RBI and banks need to do take measures urgently to bring down NPAs,'' admitted a banker.

According to the report on Trend and Progress of Banking in India for 1998-99, the net NPAs moved up from Rs 21,232 crore in 1997-98 to Rs 24,211 crore in 1998-99. ``The declining trend of NPAs of commercial banks witnessed till the year 1997-98 could not be sustained in 1998-99,'' the report said. Analysts said many companies defaulted on their loan repayments due to the industrial slowdown in the last two years. Many projects are stuck and promoters were finding it difficult to raise fresh resources to complete their projects.

However, the gross NPA as a fraction of total assets declined to 6.7 per cent in 1998-99 from 7 per cent in 1997-98, while net NPAs as a percentage to total assets declined from 3.3 per cent in 1997-98 to 3.1 per cent in 1998-99. The rise in NPAsindicate that various measures undertaken by the banks and the RBI to eliminate the menace of NPAs have not made any impact. The setting up of quasi-judicial body, Debt Recovery Tribunals has also failed to make any progress in bringing down NPAs.

The RBI report claimed that there has been a marked improvement in the loan portfolio of public sector banks in the category of `priority sector'. ``Sector wise analysis of NPAs of PSBs indicates that the share of NPAs of priority sector has declined from 50 per cent at end March-1995 to 43.7 per cent at end March 1999,'' the report said. During the year 1998-99, the RBI report says, the level of gross NPAs to gross advances declined to 15.9 per cent in 1998-99 from 16 per cent in 1997-98 mainly on account of a marginal reduction in sub-standard and doubtful assets and concomitant increase in standard assets.

According to the report, while the NPAs of public sector banks showed a marginal decline, an increase was witnessed in all other bank groups. ``During theyear 1998-99, number of PSBs with net NPAs upto 10 per cent increased by one to 18 and the number of banks with net NPAs in the range of 10 per cent to 20 per cent declined by one to eight, with one bank continuing to show NPAs above 20 per cent,'' the report said.

The RBI's annual report on banking trends also pointed out that in case of foreign banks, those with net NPAs upto 10 per cent declined from 34 to 27 over the year and those above 20 per cent stood at 3 as against 2 in the last year. The number of foreign banks with net NPAs ranging between 10 to 20 per cent increased to 11 from 6 in the preceding year.

For old private sector banks, the number of them with the net NPAs below 10 per cent was 17 as against 21 in 1997-98 while those above 20 per cent were 3 as against nil in the last three years. An analysis done by the RBI shows that NPAs of different bank groups showed that with the exception of public sector banks, the other bank groups - private sector and foreign banks witnessed increasesduring 1998-99.