Indian Bank on Tuesday reported widening of net loss to Rs 217.74 crore for March quarter 2019-20 due to higher provisions, even as the bad loan proportion came down.
The bank posted a loss of Rs 189.77 crore for January-March 2018-19, it said in a regulatory filing.However, in the preceding December quarter the bank logged a profit of Rs 247.16 crore.
Income in the quarter under review increased to Rs 6,334.37 crore from Rs 5,537.47 crore in the same period of 2018-19, the public sector lender said. In December quarter, the income was Rs 6, 505.62 crore.
The bank’s provisions for bad loans and contingencies were hiked to Rs 1,891.86 crore for March quarter of 2019-20 as against Rs 1,638.83 crore in year-ago same period.
On asset front, Indian Bank showed improvement as gross NPAs (non performing assets) were trimmed to 6.87 per cent as at March- end 2020 from 7.11 per cent by the year-ago same period.
Net NPA or bad loans were down at 3.13 per cent from 3.75 per cent a year earlier.
The bank has reported one loan account in the power and steel sector in consortium lending of 33 lenders, under borrowal fraud category to RBI during second quarter of 2019-20 and the amount of outstanding was Rs 854.92 crore as on March 31, 2020, it said.
“The account was already under NPA category since FY 2016 and provision amounting to Rs 854.92 crore is held in the account as at 31.03.2020,” it added. “In respect of another advance account declared as fraud in Q1 of FY 2020-21, the bank has provided Rs 307.98 crore (25 per cent) as on 31st March 2020 and the remaining unprovided amount of Rs 923.94 crore has been debited to revenue reserves and credited to provisions in line with RBI circular,” Indian Bank said.
{{/usCountry}}“The account was already under NPA category since FY 2016 and provision amounting to Rs 854.92 crore is held in the account as at 31.03.2020,” it added. “In respect of another advance account declared as fraud in Q1 of FY 2020-21, the bank has provided Rs 307.98 crore (25 per cent) as on 31st March 2020 and the remaining unprovided amount of Rs 923.94 crore has been debited to revenue reserves and credited to provisions in line with RBI circular,” Indian Bank said.
{{/usCountry}}Further on COVID-19 related measures, it said provisions at 15 per cent aggregating to Rs 108.90 crore against the accounts with outstanding of Rs 725.99 crore which were standard as on February 29, 2020 were made. They would have slipped to NPA/sub-standard category as on March 31, 2020 had the RBI debt servicing relief as above not been reckoned. “In respect of above accounts, interest income aggregating Rs 39.46 crore has been reckoned in operating profit and an equal amount has been made as additional provision against those assets,” it said.
Non-Performing Loan Provision Coverage ratio is 73.05 per cent as on March 31, 2020. Indian Bank stock jumped 7.07 per cent to close at Rs 68.90 on BSE.