Credit rating agency Crisil on Wednesday said Indian banks may have to set aside Rs 2.40 lakh crore to write off 60% of the bad loans from 50 large asset accounts. At present, the banks have set aside only about 40% of the value of bad loans.

The 50 stressed companies, which together have loans amounting to Rs 4 lakh crore, are mostly from the metals, construction and power sectors. These companies together account for nearly half the non-performing assets in the banking sector as of March 31, the agency said. The total NPAs with banks till March 31 amount to Rs 7.29 lakh crore.

On Tuesday, Crisil rival India Ratings had estimated that banks would need to make an additional provision of Rs 18,000 crore to write off bad loans from the 12 large companies they were taking to court for bankruptcy.