State-run Bank of India today reported a net loss of Rs 56 crore in the March quarter as against the net profit of Rs 558 crore in year-ago period, due to a surge in provisions for bad and doubtful assets and all-round bad performance.
The bank saw its provisions for bad and doubtful assets increasing by a whopping 97.36 per cent to Rs 2,240 crore from Rs 1,135 crore in the same period last year.
However, the total provisions in the quarter rose only 3.06 per cent to Rs 1,483 crore as the bank had a write-back on taxes worth Rs 773 crore.
"Our provisions for bad loans were higher and that is the reason we incurred loss in the quarter," chairman and managing director Vijayalaxmi Iyer told reporters here today.
"I did not want to leave any problem for my successor. I think the cleaning up of balance sheet is almost over," Iyer, who is retiring this week after a two-and-a-half year term, added.
For the full year, net profit was down 37.38 per cent to Rs 1,709 crore from Rs 2,729 crore last fiscal, primarily driven down by the poor show in the final quarter.
Total income in the quarter rose 9 per cent to Rs 12,260 crore as against Rs 11,274 crore in the same period last year.
Asset quality deteriorated with gross non-performing assets jumping to 5.39 per cent from 3.15 per cent, while net NPAs soared to 3.36 per cent from 2 per cent.
"Given the stress in the economy, our gross NPAs increased significantly in the last quarter. Over 90 per cent of these accounts from the recovery point of view are in order, but we have to classify these accounts because of the irregular recovery patterns coming after more than 90 days. So, most of these account we decided that we should recognise as to put pressure on borrowers to set their house in order," Iyer said.
Iyer said 45 per cent of the fresh NPAs in the last quarter were from the infrastructure sector while 41 per cent of them were on account of technical reasons.
