The 27 public sector banks in India have written off bad loans worth Rs 1.14 lakh crore during the period 2012-15. There has been a 53% increase in the write-offs in 2014-15 alone – the total write-off during the year being Rs 52,542 crore – according to information provided by RBI. The gross NPAs at the end of March 2015 stood at Rs 2,67,065 crore. These NPAs have increased to Rs 3,00,743 crore as on September 2015. In 2013-14, these banks wrote off Rs 34,409 crore while in 2012-13, it was Rs 27,231 crore. For the year 2014-15, State Bank of India had the highest figure – Rs 21,313 crore – followed by Punjab National Bank – Rs 6,587 crore – and Indian Overseas Bank – Rs 3,131 crore. The other banks on the top of the list are Allahabad Bank (Rs 2,109 crore), Central Bank of India (Rs 1,995 crore), IDBI Bank (Rs 1609 crore), Bank of Baroda (Rs 1,564 crore), Syndicate Bank (Rs 1,527 crore), Canara Bank (Rs 1,472 crore) and UCO Bank (Rs 1,401 crore). RBI has given a deadline of March 2017 for these banks to clean up their balance sheets.
