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Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday called upon the Chairpersons of Debt Recovery Appellate Tribunals (DRATs) and Presiding Officers of Debt Recovery Tribunals (DRTs) to suggest ways to expedite the unlocking of resources of various banks locked in the form of Non Performing Assets (NPAs). Addressing the first conference of the Chairpersons of DRATs and Presiding Officers of DRTs here today, Mukherjee said there could be no lending unless there was recovery, while acknowledging that banks were facing the problem of increasing NPAs, which needed immediate redressal. He further said that the role of DRTs was all the more important in helping the banks to deal with the mounting NPAs/loss assets, as they were the part of mechanism for recovery of loss assets. “The role of DRTs is all the more important in helping out the banks to deal with the mounting NPAs/loss assets as they are the part of mechanism for recovery of loss assets,” he said. Mukherjee called upon the Chairpersons and Presiding Officers to give their concrete suggestions, which would go a long way in improving the functioning of DRATs and DRTs. On the economic scenario in the country, he said that he had “full faith in the capacity and abilities of our people as well as in the resilience of the Indian economy to overcome successfully such challenges.” Despite the plummeting Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and soaring deficit, Mukherjee urged there was no need to press the panic button. “Through patience, diligence, competence and capacity of our businessmen, small and medium entrepreneurs, workers and economic experts, we would be able to overcome these challenges successfully as we have done in the past many times,” Mukherjee said. He further expressed confidence to take the economy back to growth trajectory. “The objective of taking the economy back to the path of higher growth, maintaining moderate rate of inflation, narrowing down the gap of current account deficit and restricting the fiscal deficit to 2 per cent of GDP are very much achievable,” he said.

Mukherjee calls for ideas to expedite unlocking of resources of various banks