Weighed down by bad loans, top lender SBI saw 66.2 per cent plunge in net profit to Rs1,264 crore as it more than doubled the provision for stressed assets in the fourth quarter of last fiscal ended March 31.
SBI’s provision towards bad loans alone was raised to Rs12,139.17 crore during the last quarter of 2015-16, up from Rs4,985.83 crore in the year-ago period.
Showing a high level of stress in its loan book, the bank said slippages during the quarter stood at about Rs30,000 crore, while Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya said accounts worth Rs31,000 crore were put on ‘special watch list’.
Net profit of State Bank of India in the fourth quarter of the previous fiscal, 2014-15, was Rs3,742 crore.
Its total income on standalone basis increased to Rs53,526.97 crore in the quarter under review, from Rs48,616.41 crore a year ago.
Bhattacharya said the decline in net profit was due to the impact of asset quality review (AQR) to the extent of Rs9,000 crore during the period.
She said the levels of stressed assets and NPAs had come down due to AQR impact as well.
“Slippages during the last quarter of last fiscal were to the tune of Rs30,000 crore, out of which Rs1,000 crore was due to SME and agriculture, while Rs29,000 crore was on account of large and mid corporates,” Bhattacharya said at a news conference here on Friday.
“SBI has currently recognised much of the stressed accounts. Accounts worth Rs31,000 crore had been put on special watch list,” she added.
In the last quarter of 2015-16, the bank had used a counter-cyclical provision of Rs1,100 crore. Another amount of Rs1,100 crore counter-cyclical provision was still left to be used, she said.
“Another floating provision of Rs3,300 crore has also been made,” she said. For the entire 2015-16 fiscal, SBI reported 24 per centdecline in net profit to Rs9,950.65 crore. Its net profit in 2014-15 stood at Rs13,101.57 crore.