New Delhi, Mar 9 (IANS): Non-performing assets (NPAs), or bad loans, of public sector banks (PSBs) have increased by close to Rs.1 lakh crore in the first nine months of the current fiscal, parliament was informed on Tuesday.

"The gross non-performing assets (NPAs) of the PSBs increased from 5.43 percent as on March 2015 to 7.30 percent as on December 2015," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply.

Gross NPAs of state-run banks increased from Rs.2,67,065 lakh crore in March 2015 to Rs.3,61,731 lakh crore in December 2015, he said, making for an increase of Rs.94,666 crore over the nine months of the current fiscal.

In reply to another question, Jaitley listed specific measures to address the issue of NPAs.

He said the government has approved establishment of six new Debt Recovery Tribunals, to speed up recovery of bad loans of the banking sector, in addition to the existing 33.

The Reserve Bank of India has also taken steps, including formation of a Joint Lenders' Forum (JLF) for revitalising stressed assets in the system, flexible structuring for long term project loans to infrastructure and core industries and Strategic Debt Restructuring (SDR) scheme, Jaitley added.