The Finance Ministry has expressed concerns that there might be a rise in the level of non performing assets (NPAs) of scheduled commercial banks. The finmin said that the NPA level this year may be slightly higher than the figures last year.

Mr R Gopalan, Secretary, Financial Services said that quite a number of slippages are likely to be seen in many restructured accounts. "Some of the restructured accounts are not performing the way the way we thought they would", Mr Gopalan said.

During the economic slowdown, the RBI had allowed commercial banks to restructure some of their accounts. It has been seen that some slippages in the first quarter of this fiscal have occurred in accounts restructured in 2009-10.

Mr Gopalan cleared that the slippages have been observed in commercial real estate and textile sector.