Indian Commercial Banks’ bad debt write off saw a steep rise of 59% during 2012-13 vis-à-vis 2011-12. In other words, Indian Commercial Banks (scheduled) wrote off Rs. 32,982 crore as bad debts in FY 2013 as against Rs Rs 20,753 crore in FY 2012. Out of the total write offs, State Bank of India and its associate banks alone accounted for Rs 5,594 crore, that is 21% of the total write offs. Bank of Baroda (Rs. 2356 crore) and Bank of India (Rs. 2415 crore) are the other Public Sector Banks that have accounted for bulk of the write offs.
Indian Commercial Banks’ bad debt write offs had shown a declining trend in 2010-11 and 2011-12 after peaking in 2009-10. In 2009-10 these banks had written off Rs 25,352 crore as bad debts which was in the aftermath of global meltdown. However, this had come down to Rs 20,753 crore in 2011-12. Indian Commercial Banks have written off Rs 1,02,983 during the last four financial years.
Of the total write offs in 2012-13, Public Sector Banks (including SBI group) accounted for 82% and the rest was borne by private sector and foreign banks.
