PNB under-reported bad loans by Rs 2,617 crore in FY19: RBI report

Public sector lender Punjab National Bank (PNB) under-reported its non-performing assets by Rs 2,617 crore for the fiscal year 2018-19, as per RBI’s risk-assessment report. In a regulatory filing on Saturday, PNB said the divergence in gross non-performing assets (NPAs) assessed by the central bank stood at Rs 2,617 crore in FY19.

The divergence assessed by the RBI in net NPAs was also Rs 2,617 crore for the fiscal. Also, the divergence in provisioning for bad loans in FY19 was to the tune of Rs 2,091 crore. Consequently, based on the divergence assessed by RBI in provisioning for bad loans, PNB said it would have reported a net loss of Rs 11,335.90 crore for FY19 as opposed to a net loss of Rs 9,975.49 crore.

The bank said it reported gross NPAs of Rs 78,472.70 crore, while as per RBI’s assessment the figure was Rs 81,089.70 crore. Similarly, it reported net NPAs of Rs 30,037.66 crore, compared to RBI’s assessment of Rs 32,654.66 crore.

Provisions for NPAs made by the bank in FY19 stood at Rs 48151.15 crore but it needed to provide Rs 50,242.15 crore. Recently, market regulator Sebi made it mandatory for listed banks to disclose bad loan divergence within a day of receiving the risk assessment report from the RBI.