New Delhi: State-owned Canara Bank Friday said its net loss narrowed multi-fold to Rs 551.53 crore for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2018-19, mainly driven by lower provisioning for bad loans.


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The bank had posted a net loss of Rs 4,859.77 crore during the corresponding January-March period of the preceding fiscal.


Total income of the bank during the March quarter rose to Rs 14,000.43 crore, compared to Rs 11,555.11 crore in the year-ago period, Canara Bank said in a regulatory filing.


For the full 2018-19 fiscal, the bank has posted a net profit of Rs 347.02 crore. There was a net loss of Rs 4,222.24 crore in 2017-18.


Total income during the fiscal was higher at Rs 53,385.30 crore as against Rs 48,194.94 crore a year earlier.


The Bengaluru-headquartered lender witnessed improvement in the asset quality with the gross non-performing assets (NPAs) falling to 8.83 percent of gross advances at March-end 2019 compared to 11.84 percent a year earlier.


Net NPAs or bad loans stood at 5.37 percent, compared with 7.48 percent year ago.


In absolute-value, the gross NPAs were Rs 39,224.12 crore at March-end 2019, as against Rs 47,468.47 crore a year earlier. Likewise, the net NPAs stood at Rs 22,955.11 crore in the quarter under review, compared to Rs 28,542.40 crore.


There was also a reduction in provisioning requirement to the tune of Rs 5,120.85 crore in March quarter FY2019 as against Rs 8,762.57 crore parked aside in the year-ago period.


The overall provisioning and contingencies stood at Rs 5,523.50 crore, less than Rs 9,075.04 crore a year ago.


Canara Bank said, as per the RBI directive, it restructured as many as 41,602 MSME account as on March 31, 2019 with amount involving Rs 753.51 crore as a relief to them under Goods and Services Tax (GST).


During the quarter ended March 31, 2019, six fraud accounts were detected, amounting of Rs 704.06 crore, wherein the bank is required to provide Rs 429.87 crore, in addition to the provision of Rs 274.19 crore already provided up to December 2018, it said.


"The total amount provided during the quarter is Rs 107.47 crore, representing 25 percent of the provision to be made. Further, the remaining unamortised provision amount is debited to other reserves, which will be amortised during first three quarters of next financial year," it added.


During the March quarter, the bank allotted 2 crores equity shares at Rs 186 each under Employee Share Purchase Scheme, the lender said.


Provision coverage ratio as on March 31, 2019 stood at 68.13 percent, as against 58.06 percent a year ago.


Shares of Canara Bank closed 3.21 percent up at Rs 265.45 apiece on the BSE.