The government plans to pump in around Rs 9,000 crore into select state-run banks by April-May, in the first phase of its capital infusion programme announced in the Budget 2010-2011, a top finance ministry official said on Friday.
?This will be done by April-May in the first phase. We are looking at putting in around Rs 9,000 crore,” financial services secretary R Gopalan told reporters.
“That is something I cannot say. Calculations will have to go on for now. We have to find out as on March 31, what are the outstandings and CRAR (capital-to-risk-weighted assets ratio). These issues have to be sorted out,” Gopalan added.
While Gopalan did not divulge the names of banks likely to receive capital, it is widely expected that Uco Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, Indian Overseas Bank, Syndicate Bank, Dena Bank, among others, will make it to the list. He earlier met the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) top brass, senior bankers and Unique Identification Authority of India chairman Nandan Nilekani, on the issue of financial inclusion.
In the Budget, the government has earmarked Rs 16,500 crore for recapitalisation of state-run banks, to enable them maintain 8% Tier-I capital by March 31, 2011. However, the government is yet to decide which banks it would infuse funds into and the amount for each lender. The meeting discussed ways of new technology models for spreading banking activities in unbanked areas as promised by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee in the Budget.
The government and RBI have chalked out a road map to take banking services to an already identified 60,000 unbanked areas with a population of over 2,000 by 2012, Gopalan said.
“The commitment was that all habitations having a population more than 2,000 will be covered by 2012. So we have a road map for it,” Gopalan said.
The meeting was attended by the RBI governor, deputy governors, top bankers including SBI chairman O P Bhatt and and Union Bank CMD MV Nair.
