The Public sector Indian Bank has recorded a dip in the fourth quarter ending March 31, 2018 standalone net profits at Rs 131.98 crore due to higher provisioning, a top bank official said here today.
The city-headquartered bank, had standalone net profits at Rs 319.70 crore during corresponding period of last year.
For the financial year ending March 31, 2018 standalone net profits slipped to Rs 1,258.99 crore from Rs 1,405.67 crore registered during year ago period.
"Profit has come down in Q4 basically because of the one circular issued by Reserve Bank of India. And in almost all banks, the accounts which were under reservation because the reservation schemes withdrawn the accounts were required to be downgraded. So the provisioning part came there..", Indian Bank MD and CEO, Kishor Kharat told reporters here.
Further elaborating, he said, the hardening of the bond market also occurred during the fourth quarter (January-March 31, 2018) of last financial year and there was pressure on the bank's profits.
"We could absorb all those provisions and still we could show the profit. One more thing, profit on the investment on the other side was not there because of the hardening of the bond," he said.
Total income of the bank for the fourth quarter ending March 31, 2018 went upto Rs 4,954.20 crore from Rs 4,601.89 crore registered during same period of last year.
For the full year ending March 31, 2018 total income of the bank went upto Rs 5,113.15 crore from Rs 4,423.95 crore registered during year ago period.
Responding to a query on net slippages during the fourth quarter ending March 31,2018, he said, on quarter on quarter basis, bunch of the slippages were because of the RBI's circular issued on February 12.
"So, fresh slippages in last quarter was Rs 2,988 crore. All those slippages accounts which were under reservation.. All the reservation mechanisms were withdrawn, those accounts were downgraded," he said.
On the bank's plan to control Non Performing Assets, Kharat said, "We have shared our vision to bring down our net NPA to less than three per cent."
"Last year net NPA was 4.39 per cent and we were well within our target of bringing it closer to three per cent. In fact, it has come down to 3.81 per cent," he added.
Stating that the bank does not witness any stress on its portfolios, he said, "Going forward, obviously what our target was there for the five year period, bringing net NPA less than three per cent we are going to achieve it."
"I think this current financial year itself we will either get it close to 3 per cent or less than 3 per cent".
To another query, he said, the ability of the bank will improve, as the recoveries were expected from the accounts which were "under pressure."
"In this financial year (2018-19) we are expecting more than Rs 2,000 crore NPA recovery. It will straight away go to our bottom line.. Our ability will increase," he said.
Responding to a query on the capital raising plan, Kharat said, "We have already given our five year plan that we will be raising capital as and when required."
"This year also we will raise capital. Quantum and all will be worked out.. You know last year, in our AGM shareholders have given us permission to raise upto Rs 7,000 crore. Now we will start working on capital raising plans," he said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)