Kolkata, May 15 (IANS): State-run United Bank of India (UBI) is looking to recover close to Rs 4,500-5000 crore as it is exploring all options including settlement of cases outside the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), an official said on Tuesday.

"We are looking at all possibilities including one time settlement outside of the NCLT. The aim is to recover around Rs 4,500-5,000 crore this fiscal," MD and CEO Ashok Kumar Pradhan said.

He said the bank had recovered close to Rs 6,000 crore in 2018-19 and of this, nearly Rs 2,500 crore was recovered during the March quarter.

The bank had referred around 33 cases to the Kolkata bench of the NCLT in the first or second quarter of last fiscal, and in this one, only two have been admitted so far, he added.

The total exposure of the bank under these accounts would be close to Rs 300 crore, Pradhan said.

The bank is hopeful of bringing down gross non-performing assets (NPAs) to 8-9 per cent, and net NPAs to 3-4 per cent by the end of this financial year.

For the quarter ended March 31, 2019, its gross NPA stood at 16.48 per cent while net NPA was 8.67 per cent.