State Bank of India (SBI) today said it has sanctioned Rs 2,500 crore to Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL) to fund its expansion programme.
SBI chairman Pratip Chaudhuri said bank authorities will tomorrow meet the management of RINL, the corporate entity of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, to complete the formalities and to hand over the loan amount. He was talking to reporters after opening a specialised currency administration branch of SBI.
Regarding recovery of the Kingfisher Airlines loans, he said banks had extended loans of over Rs 6,000 crore to the grounded carrier, of which SBI's share was Rs 1,600 crore. SBI will take legal measures to recover the amount from Kingfisher, Mr Chaudhuri said.
He said the state-owned bank had a total staff strength of 2.50 lakh and it recruited 20,000 this fiscal year, out of which 14,000 have already joined work.
Mr Chaudhuri added that the bank has decided to spend 1 per cent of its profit on corporate social responsibility (CSR). Earlier, SBI donated three ambulances to the Indian Red Cross Society, Srikakulam unit as part of its CSR activities.
