IDBI Bank’s NPAs at ₹24,875 cr, less than RBI estimate
Bank Ltd on Tuesday said that the divergence between its own gross bad loan estimates and those made by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was ₹6,816.60 crore at the end of 2015-16.
The state-owned bank made this disclosure in its audited financial results for 2016-17.
The bank reported gross nonperforming assets (NPAs) of ₹24,875.07 crore as on March 31, 2016, against ₹31,691.67 crore assessed by the central bank.
Accordingly, the provisions — kept aside to cover bad loans —also saw a divergence of ₹2,061.00 crore for 2015-16. The bank provided ₹10,231.68 crore in the previous fiscal, lower than the RBI’s assessment figure of ₹12,292.68 crore.
In May, IDBI Bank was put under RBI’s prompt corrective action after its bad loans surged. At the end of March 2017, bank’s gross bad loans were over ₹44,750 crore.
IDBI Bank joins ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, RBL Bank and Yes Bank in making such disclosures after the central bank asked lenders to do so.
On April 18, the RBI told banks to state bad loan divergence in their financial statements if it exceeded 15%.
Following such disclosures, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) had written to RBI, seeking information on the divergence in bad loan estimates by some lenders and the central bank, Mint reported on 29 May.
ICAI’s disciplinary directorate wrote to RBI on May 24 seeking “specific information/details such as details of inspection by RBI with relevant documents to be made available to ICAI and further requesting them to file a formal complaint, if they so desire”, a spokesperson for the auditors’ body said in a written reply to Mint’s queries.