SBI under-reported NPAs by Rs 12K cr in FY19

As a result the bank has to make additional provisioning of Rs 12,036 crore in the balance sheet.

The country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) on Tuesday reported about Rs 12,000 crore divergence in their bad loans for the last fiscal.

As per the assessment done by the RBI, the gross NPA of the SBI was 11,932 crore more at Rs 1,84,682 as against Rs 1,72,750 reported by the bank for 2018-19, SBI said in a regulatory filing.

Similarly, the net NPA was 77,827 crore as compared to disclosed figure of Rs 65,895 crore, reflecting divergence of Rs 11,932 crore, it said.

As a result the bank has to make additional provisioning of Rs 12,036 crore in the balance sheet and the notional loss would have been at Rs 6,968 crore.

SBI had posted a profit of Rs 862 crore for 2018-19 in May this year.

It further said after subsequent slippage or upgradation during the current financial year, the remaining impact on the gross NPAs during the third quarter of current fiscal is Rs 3,143 core.

The impact on provisioning during the third quarter stood at Rs 4,654 crore, it added.

In recent months, there have been several instances of under-reporting of bad loans by lenders, prompting regulatory action by the Reserve Bank of India.

Last month, SBI in a circular noted that disclosures in respect of divergence and provisioning are in the nature of material events and hence necessitate immediate disclosure.

Further, this information is also price sensitive, requiring prompt disclosure by a listed entity.

Accordingly, the regulator has decided that "listed banks shall make disclosures of divergences and provisioning beyond specified threshold, as mentioned in aforesaid RBI notifications, as soon as reasonably possible and not later than 24 hours upon receipt of the Reserve Bank's Final Risk Assessment Report (RAR), rather than waiting to publish them as part of annual financial statements".

The SBI has reported the loan divergence to the exchanges, as per the direction of market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).

Photograph: Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters