The Lok Sabha has taken up the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2017 for discussion. <br/><br/>It seeks to amend the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 to insert provisions for handling cases related to stressed assets of banks. Stressed assets are loans where the borrower has defaulted in repayment or where the loan has been restructured. <br/><br/>The bill will replace the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Ordinance, 2017 which was promulgated on 4th of May this year. The legislation will enable the Central government to authorize the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to direct banking companies to resolve specific stressed assets by initiating insolvency resolution process. <br/><br/>The RBI has also been empowered to issue other directions for resolution, and appoint or approve appointment, authorities or committees to advise banking companies for resolution of stressed assets.<br/><br/>Initiating the discussion, Gaurav Gogoi of Congress said that NPAs have increased from 2.3 per cent in 2009 to 7.8 per cent in 2016 and pose a grave challenge to the country's economy .<br/><br/>He alleged that the government has failed to deal with this problem. He said, the government as a majority shareholder in public sector banks should have asked the banks to recover bad loans. <br/><br/>He also wanted to know why government did not take action against bank officials for colluding with companies for advancing loans. Mr Gogoi also alleged that there is no meticulous planning for implementation of insolvency code. Welcoming the bill, Udit Raj of BJP said, it will equip the RBI to address the issue. <br/><br/>He said, involvement of RBI in dealing with the NPAs and Stressed assets will make their resolution easy. Sougata Roy of TMC said, the bill is not bad per se but it is unnecessary. <br/><br/>Giving names of twelve defaulters who owe 2.53 lakh crore rupees, he said, why no action was taken against them. Rabindra Kumar Jena of BJD said, the RBI is a regulator and it should not be made manager of banks. He said, bill will not yield desired results.