Axis Bank on Wednesday reported 43 per cent decline in net profit to Rs1,225.10 crore for the fourth quarter of last fiscal ended March 31 on higher provisioning for bad loans, which rose sharply. The country’s third largest private sector lender had posted a net profit of Rs2,154.28 crore for the January-March quarter of the previous fiscal, 2015-16.
Its total income increased however to Rs14,181.31 crore in the fourth quarter of 2016-17 as against Rs13,592.97 crore in the year-ago period. The bank’s gross non-performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans rose significantly to 5.04 per cent of the gross advances as of March this year, as against 1.67 per cent a year earlier. Net NPAs were 2.11 per cent of the net advances during the quarter, as against 0.70 per cent. Consequently, provisioning more than doubled to Rs2,581.25 crore for bad loans and contingencies from Rs1,168.33 crore in the same quarter a year ago.