For loss-making companies, 2017-18 was the worst year in a decade

344 companies reported a combined net loss of Rs 1.8 trillion, more than twice that in 2016-17

Even as 1,794 companies reported a combined net profit of Rs 4.42 trillion in financial year 2017-18, India Inc’s performance was pulled down by loss-making companies. In FY18, 344 companies reported a combined loss of Rs 1.8 trillion – more than double the number in FY17, and the highest in at least a decade. 

Loss-making companies have now cumulatively lost Rs 4.85 trillion in the past five years, and 76 per cent of that has come in the past three years.

And, contrary to general perception, not all of these losses are due to the bad loans accumulated by public-sector