Canara Bank posts Rs 4,860 crore loss in Q4 as NPA provisions jump 3-fold

New Delhi: State-owned Canara Bank on Friday reported a net loss of Rs 4,859.77 crore for the last quarter of 2017-18 due to increased provisioning for bad loans.

The bank had clocked a net profit of Rs 214.18 crore in the corresponding January-March quarter of preceding fiscal 2016-17.

The bank raised its provisioning for non-performing assets (NPAs) to Rs 8,762.57 crore during the January-March quarter, up by nearly 200 percent percent from Rs 2,924.08 crore in the same period of previous fiscal, as bad assets ballooned, according to a regulatory filing by the bank.

For whole 2017-18, the bank suffered a net loss of Rs 4,222.24 crore compared with a net profit of Rs 1,121.92 crore in the previous fiscal.

Total income of the bank during the quarter ended March 2018 fell to Rs 11,555.11 crore from Rs 12,889.20 crore.

In full year 2017-18, total income stood at Rs 48,194.94 crore against Rs 48,942.04 crore in preceding year, the bank said.

Asset-wise, there was fall in quality as gross non-performing assets (NPAs) rose to 11.84 percent of gross advances by the end of March 2018 from 9.63 percent by end-March 2017.

In absolute value, the gross NPAs were at Rs 47,468.47 crore from Rs 34,202.04 crore.

Net NPA ratio stood at 7.48 percent (Rs 28,542.40 crore) from 6.33 percent (Rs 21,648.98 crore).

The NPA provisioning for the full year rose to Rs 14,882.70 crore from Rs 7,437.77 crore in 2016-17.

In view of fraud reported during the year in certain banks in respect of one gems and jewellery borrower group accounts , the bank has classified these accounts as non-performing asset and provided fully, Canara Bank said.

Additionally, on the NPA divergence for the year 2016-17, the bank said there was a gap of Rs 3,248.50 crore in gross NPAs with the bank reporting it to be Rs 34,202.04 crore and the Reserve Bank assessing it at Rs 37,450.54 crore.

Net NPA divergence was of Rs 1,847.28 crore. The bank reported it to be Rs 21,648.98 crore and the RBI assessed it at Rs 23,496.26 crore.

Thus there was a resultant divergence in provisioning to the tune of Rs 1,401.22 crore in 2016-17.

However, taking the NPA divergence into account for 2016-17, the bank adjusted for a net loss of Rs 279.30 crore against its originally reported net profit of Rs 1,121.92 crore.

Canara Bank shares closed 0.92 percent down at Rs 246.35 on BSE.