Banks likelty to cut interest rates in coming weeks: Arun Jaitley

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley here on Friday said that he hopes that the banks will soon cut the interest rates in the next few days and weeks to pass on the benefits of rate cut by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) soon after his meeting with the heads of public sector banks .

"Discussed with banks passing on RBI's rate cut to consumers, as also stalled projects, credit growth, education and housing loans," Jaitley said after his meeting with bankers to discuss health of banks and roadmap for reducing stressed andnon-performing assets.

The Finance Minister said that though the Non-Performing Assets fo banks have come down to 5.2 per cent as on March 31, 2015 but added that one fiscal does not necessarily indicate at a pattern.

"Banks need 2-3 quarters to improve asset quality though NPAs have come down to 5.2 per cent as of March 31, 2015," he said.

Jaitley said that he has asked banks with higher NPAs to explain the reason of stress on them.

"Govt spending on infrastructure has increased significantly, we are on a roadmap of much higher growth," he said adding that the government was keeping fingers crossed on monsson.

The Finance Minister had also met Raghuram Rajn on Thursday, which was his first meeting with the RBI governor after the central bank, last week, reduced its short-term lending rate from 7.5 per cent to 7.25 per cent.