E-Paper
PSU banks suffer whopping ₹87,000 cr loss in FY18
Of the 21 state-owned banks, only two banks, Indian Bank and Vijaya Bank, posted profits during 2017-18. Indian Bank posted the highest profit of ₹1,258.99 crore and Vijaya Bank’s profit was ₹727.02 crore in the fiscal.
Losses of public sector banks crossed a whopping ₹87,300 crore in 2017-18 fiscal, topped by scam-tainted Punjab National Bank which took a hit of nearly ₹12,283 crore.
Of the 21 state-owned banks, only two banks, Indian Bank and Vijaya Bank, posted profits during 2017-18. Indian Bank posted the highest profit of ₹1,258.99 crore and Vijaya Bank’s profit was ₹727.02 crore in the fiscal.
So, the net loss posted by state-owned banks was about ₹85,370 crore in 2017-18 as against a net profit of ₹473.72 crore in the previous fiscal.
The 19 government-run banks collectively posted a net loss of ₹87,357 crore during the fiscal, according to the latest quarterly numbers posted by these lenders.
Punjab National Bank, which is reeling under more than ₹14,000-crore scam allegedly perpetrated by Nirav Modi and associates, posted a net loss of ₹12,282.82 crore last fiscal. In 2016-17, the Delhi-headquartered bank had posted a profit of ₹1,324.8 crore.
PNB was followed by IDBI Bank, whose net loss widened to ₹8,237.93 crore in the fiscal ended March 2018 from ₹5,158.14 crore in the previous year.
India’s largest bank State Bank of India too added hugely to the combined losses of PSBs. SBI’s net loss in 2017-18 stood at ₹6,547.45 crore as against a net profit of ₹10,484.1 crore in 2016-17.
Indian banking sector is grappling with mounting non-performing assets (NPAs) and host of scams and frauds.
The NPA in the banking sector stood at ₹8.31 lakh crore as of December 2017.
Weak financials due to mounting bad loans have already pushed 11 banks, out of 21 state-owned banks, under the Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) framework of the Reserve Bank.
The recent tight prudential norms released by the RBI on February 12 have added to the NPA woes.
Interim Finance Minister Piyush Goyal has announced setting up of a committee to give recommendations in two weeks on formation of an Asset Reconstruction Company for faster resolution of stressed accounts.
The committee under Sunil Mehta, non-executive chairman of PNB, will make recommendations in two weeks on setting up of an Asset Reconstruction Company or Asset Management Company for faster resolution of stressed accounts.
The finance minister said the committee will consider whether such an arrangement will be good for the banking system and, if any such suggestion is advisable, it will also consider the modalities by which such an ARC and/or and AMC should be set up.
