Govt. empowerment of RBI to deal with stressed assets was necessary: Jaitley

New Delhi [India], May 5 (ANI): Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said that it was necessary to empower the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in relation to specific stressed assets, since it was doubtful that whether the language of Section 35 A of the Banking Regulations Act covered the respective empowerments. "It was necessary to empower RBI in this direction. The ordinance passed by the Honorable President seeks to incorporate issuances of Government of India authorizing the RBI to initiate the insolvency and bankruptcy proceedings in relation to any stressed assets," Jaitley told reporters here. "Secondly, it relates to directions of forming committees to deal any matter related to insolvency and bankruptcy," he added while stressing that the RBI and the govt. will continue to work together to overcome the challenge of stressed assts. He further elaborated on the government's plan to sign various Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs') with public sector banks (PSBs'), which will seek capitalization. "The specific provisions will include immediate cash release initiatives such as sale of assets, closure of non-profitable branches, reduction of overheads and several others," Jaitley added. President Pranab Mukherjee earlier today approved a government ordinance to act against Non-Performing Assets (NPA). The ordinance will give greater powers to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to tackle mounting bad loans, according to an official in the finance ministry. Earlier, the Union Cabinet had approved promulgation of an ordinance to amend the Banking Regulation Act for resolution of the non-performing asset ( NPA) crisis. The Cabinet also gave its nod to the National Steel Policy- 2017 which targets to achieve 300 Million tonne of steel making capacity by 2030 with an additional investment of ten lakh crore rupees. (ANI)