Bad loans issue not 'insurmountable' for India: Arun Jaitley

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today asserted that the problem of bad loans in the banking system is not insurmountable for a large economy like India as it is limited to only 20-30 big accounts.

Speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations In New York, the minister, however, said the problem of non-performing assets, NPAs, has just persisted too long and is certainly adversely impacting the banking system. He said, the NPAs resolution is top priority of the government at the moment as it will encourage private



investments. 

Talking on the outcome of the demonetisation move, Jaitley said the final score card will take a long time. He also said the generation of cash in the economy will be quite difficult as government is focusing on digitisation and the GST is going to be implemented.

Mr Jaitley, who is in New York on an official visit, said that because of the combined impact of the GST, demonetisation and several other steps by the government, revenues in India are increasing quite rapidly.