The RTI replies demonstrate a constant surge in the amount written off by the scheduled commercial banks, which include public sector banks and private banks in the country, since 2014-15.
While banks claim that the recovery measures continue even after write-offs, sources say not more than 15-20 per cent is recovered.
In the last three years, Indian banking system has lost Rs 1.76 lakh crore on account of writing off non-performing loans of 416 defaulters — each owing Rs 100 crore or more.
On an average, the amount declared as bad loans turns out to be around Rs 424 crore per borrower.
This the first time data relating to big loans and biggest defaulters –owing at least Rs 100 crore – has come to light.
The statistics showed that 109 unique borrowers had their loans to the tune of Rs 40,798 crore written off.
Following a norm issued by the RBI to all the scheduled commercial banks to come clear on the amount to be prudentially written off and set the accounts right, the data has been exclusively accessed by the CNN-News18 by filing a series of RTI applications.
The RTI replies demonstrate a constant surge in the amount written off by the scheduled commercial banks, which include public sector banks and private banks in the country, since 2014-15.
Between 2015 and 2018, a total of Rs 2.17 lakh crore were written off as bad debts by the scheduled commercial banks.
The statistics showed that 109 unique borrowers had their loans to the tune of Rs 40,798 crore written off.
This number grew to 199 unique borrowers as on March 31, 2016 with a total of Rs 69,976 crore as amount written off.
The next two years – post demonetization, however, witnessed the sharpest increase in the amount being written off for the borrowers.
The RBI collects credit information of large borrowers with exposure of Rs 5 crore and above, which contain data on borrowers with amount technically/prudentially written off.
The number of unique borrowers grew to 343 – an addition of 144 more, i.e. a 72 percent rise in number of such loanees.
For this period, the amount written off also jumped from Rs 69,926 to Rs 1, 27, 797 crore.
This amounted to a rise by Rs 57,821 crore as compared to Rs 29,178 of the preceding financial year. It also meant a whopping hike by almost 83 percent in the total amount written off by the scheduled commercial banks in the year immediately following the demonetization.
The story remained the same for the next financial year.
As on March 31, 2018, there happened to be 525 unique borrowers – this was an addition of 182 borrowers whose big loans were written off.
The total amount written off as bad debts shot up from 1.27 lakh crore to Rs 2.17 lakh crore – an increase of Rs 89,324 crore – another huge jump by almost 70 percent.
The RTI reply pointed out that the data prior to September 2014 for number of write-offs to the tune of at least Rs 100 crore is not available.
The constant spurt in bad loans has prodded the government into stepping in time and again to bail out banks by recapitalizing them.
While banks claim that the recovery measures continue even after write-offs, sources say not more than 15-20 per cent is recovered.
The RBI collects credit information of large borrowers with exposure of Rs 5 crore and above, which contain data on borrowers with amount technically/prudentially written off.
The information accessed by the CNN-News18 is a first in getting the exact number of unique borrowers in respect of which an amount of Rs 100 crore and above were written off.
The information also uniquely depicts the pattern between 2014 and 2018 when such numbers grew, especially post demonetization.
SBI writes off Rs 76,600 crore of 220 defaulters, RTI query reveals
Similarly, Central Bank of India and Indian Overseas Bank had 4 defaulters each, owing more than Rs 500 crore when their loans were written off.
The data has been accessed by the CNN-News18 through a series of RTI applications, following the Supreme Court judgments that directed the RBI to disclose relevant information on the NPAs and bad debts under the RTI Act.
India’s largest bank, State Bank of India (SBI) has written off bad loans worth Rs 76,600 crore of 220 defaulters, who owed more than Rs 100 crore each.
As on March 31, 2019, the SBI has declared as unrecoverable outstanding worth Rs 37,700 crore that 33 borrowers, with loans of Rs 500 crore and more, owed to it.
In a first, the latest information, furnished by the RBI to CNN-News18 under the Right To Information Act, has disclosed the bank-wise break up where loans more than Rs 100 crore and Rs 500 crore were written off by the banks as on March 31, 2019.
A total of Rs 2.75 lakh crore has been written off for entities that borrowed Rs 100 crore or more from scheduled commercial banks. The latest statistics divulge that Rs 67,600 crore were declared as bad debts for those given loans of Rs 500 crore and more.
As on March 31, 2019, the SBI has declared as unrecoverable outstanding worth Rs 37,700 crore that 33 borrowers, with loans of Rs 500 crore and more, owed to it.
As many as 980 borrowers have been enlisted by the RBI whose debts of more than Rs 100 crore each had to be written off by the banks. Out of these, 220 accounts – more than one-fifth of the total number – belonged to SBI. An average of Rs 348 crore was waived off in respect of each such account.
Out of 71 total accounts reported as having defaulted in loans of over and above Rs 500 crore each, SBI’s share turned out to be 33 to 46 per cent of the total.
Similarly, as on March 31, Punjab National Bank (PNB) had waived off debts of at least Rs 100 crore each in respect of 94 borrowers. The gross amount came out to be Rs 27,024 crore, with an average of Rs 287 crore per account.
PNB also wrote off loans of Rs 500 crore or more for 12 biggest defaulters, totaling Rs 9,037 crore.
While SBI and PNB topped the list among the public sector banks, IDBI stood at the top among the private banks. IDBI also came third among all the scheduled commercial banks in declaring bad debts of Rs 100 crore or more.
IDBI had 71 borrowers of Rs 100 crore and more, with a total outstanding of Rs 26,219 crore written off.
Canara Bank too had 63 accounts with outstanding of Rs 100 crore and more, and another 7 accounts with borrowings of Rs 500 crore and more, in respect of which loans worth Rs 27,382 crore.
The list of borrowers with Rs 100 crore and more as outstanding having been declared as bad loans is followed by Bank of India with 56 accounts, Corporation Bank with 50 accounts, Bank of Baroda with 46 accounts and Central Bank of India with 45 accounts.
Among the private banks, Axis Bank had 43 such borrowers, followed by ICICI Bank having 37 such accounts.
Similarly, Central Bank of India and Indian Overseas Bank had 4 defaulters each, owing more than Rs 500 crore when their loans were written off.
The data has been accessed by the CNN-News18 through a series of RTI applications, following the Supreme Court judgments that directed the RBI to disclose relevant information on the NPAs and bad debts under the RTI Act.
(Source; CNN -News 18)
