Public sector banks have written off loans worth over Rs 42,000 crore in the first six months of the current 2024-’25 financial year till September, the Union Ministry of Finance told the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Writing off a bad loan allows a bank to move a non-performing asset, or NPA, out of the assets side in its books and list it as a loss. This helps the bank reduce the number of its non-performing assets and lowers its tax burden, as the amount written off is not classified as profit.
In a written reply, Minister of State Pankaj Chaudhary said that the State Bank of India wrote off loans totalling Rs 8,312 crore, while Punjab National Bank wrote off Rs 8,061 crore during the April to September period.
During the same period, Union Bank of India wrote off Rs 6,344 crore, and Bank of Baroda wrote off Rs 5,925 crore, as per the reply.
Overall, loans worth Rs 42,035 crore were written off by 12 public sector banks between April and September, while a recovery of Rs 37,253 crore was made on non-performing assets.
Chaudhary was replying to a question from Samajwadi MP Anand Bhadauriya on the details of the loans written off and the biggest beneficiaries.
“Such write-off does not result in waiver of liabilities of borrowers and therefore, it does not benefit the borrower,” Chaudhary said in the reply. “The borrowers continue to be liable for repayment and banks continue to pursue recovery actions initiated in these accounts through various recovery mechanisms available to them."
Chaudhary said that public sector banks wrote off loans totalling Rs 1.14 lakh crore in 2023-’24, which was a decrease from Rs 1.18 lakh crore in the previous year.
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