19 banks' interest income growth at nadir

6.2% dip in interest expenditure help the listed PSB banks better profit in fiscal 2003-04

Nineteen listed public sector banks (PSBs) posted a lowest ever interest income growth of 2 per cent in fiscal year ended March 2004.

In fiscal year 2003 these banks had recorded a 6.1 per cent growth in interest income and a 10.9 per cent growth in fiscal year 2002.

The growth in interest income was higher at 22.5 per cent in 1996 and 18.2 per cent in 1999.

Other income, which played a major role in shoring up these banks' profits in 2002-03, showed a lower-than-expected growth.

The net profit of these banks surged 32.2 per cent owing to a 6.2 per cent decline in interest expenditure.

However, if one excludes the State Bank of India (SBI) from the sample, the remaining 18 PSBs showed a higher 37.9 per cent rise in net profit.

Still the profit growth in 2003-04 has been lower compared with the 41.7 per cent growth in 2002-03 and 79.9 per cent in 2001-02.

Nevertheless, the performance of unlisted PSBs were more promising than the listed ones.

Seven unlisted PSBs have recorded a 48.9 per cent jump in net profit on the back of a 49.4 per cent rise in other income and a 3.16 per cent rise in interest income.

The aggregate interest income of the 19 PSBs grew to Rs 92,289 crore from Rs 90,506 crore, while their net profit rose to Rs 13,983 crore in fiscal 2003-04 from Rs 10,575 crore in 2002-03.

Their other income looked up 30.5 per cent from Rs 18,090 crore to Rs 23,614 crore.

SBI had posted a modest 18.6 per cent rise in net profit to Rs 3,681 crore in the fiscal year. The bank's interest income, for the first time, dropped 2 per cent from Rs 31,087 crore to Rs 30,460 crore. Its other provisions jumped up by 84.5 per cent to Rs 4,628 crore. Among the 19 listed PSBs, four banks reported more than a 100 per cent jump in net profit.

Like the previous year, Allahabad Bank recorded the highest net profit growth of 179.16 per cent (106.9 per cent in 2003).

The net profit of Uco Bank, Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank, too, jumped up over 100 per cent in 2003-04.