PNB sets Rs 10K-cr NPA recovery goal

State-run Punjab National Bank, which returned to the black in the December quarter with a modest profit after three successive quarters of massive losses, has set a target of recovering Rs 10,000 crore from bad loans in the March quarter.

So far this fiscal year, the lender had made recoveries worth Rs 16,600 crore from bad loans, the lender said. The bank, which was hit hard by the Rs 14,000-crore Nirav Modi-Mehul Choksi scam in February 2018, had Tuesday pencilled in a net profit of Rs 247 crore for the December quarter. "We expect a recovery of Rs 10,000 crore from NPAs in which include Rs 6,000 crore from Bhushan Power & Steel and Essar Steel (both at the NCLTs) in the current quarter," MD and CEO Sunil Mehta said.

He said the balance Rs 4,000 crore of the planned recovery will be from smaller accounts as well as from a few NCLT accounts. Mehta said the bank will get Rs 1,800 crore as write-back on provisions made for Bhushan Power & Steel and Essar Steel in the March quarter.