Banks' gross NPAs rise to 3.85%, PSBs lag: CARE

Jul 28, 2014, 09.44 PM IST | Source: PTI

Its estimate is based on the study of the 26 state-owned banks as well as 13 from the private sector, including all the big banks.
With lenders continuing to be under pressure on asset quality, CARE Ratings today said the gross non-performing assets of banks increased to 3.85 percent as on March 2014 and will deteriorate further to 4 percent by the end of March 2015.

Its estimate is based on the study of the 26 state-owned banks as well as 13 from the private sector, including all the big banks.

"Overall Gross NPA Ratio has risen from 3.26 per cent as on March 31, 2013 to 3.85 per cent as on March 31, 2014," CARE said in a report.

The 3.85 percent number would have been higher by 0.30 percent, but for the sale of over Rs 10,000 crore of assets by the banks to the asset reconstruction companies in the latter part of the recently concluded fiscal, it said.

A December 2014 report by the Reserve Bank had pegged the overall system's gross NPA at 4.2 percent in September 2013, and estimated that it will grow to 4.6 percent in September 2014 and recover to 4.4 per cent by March 2015.

The slack economic growth (the country has witnessed two consecutive years of sub-5 per cent growth), high interest rates due to the pressure on the inflation front and trouble on projects both due to clearances and judicial interventions have been blamed for the high NPAs.

With a new pro-reforms government taking charge, analysts have been saying that there will be a surge in the growth. "However, the improvement (on NPAs) would be gradual and would reflect in the second half of FY15. The Gross NPA ratio is estimated to be marginally higher at around 4 per cent by end of FY15," the domestic agency said.

Private banks continue to outperform the state-run ones on the asset quality front. "The gross NPAs of public sector banks increased by 38.2 per cent, while that of the private sector banks was comparatively lower at 13.6 per cent. The gross NPA of the state-run banks stood at 4.33 per cent as on March 2014 as against the 1.82 per cent for the private sector ones," it said.