Syndicate Bank posted a 31 per cent decline in net profit to Rs 409.3 crore in the fourth quarter ended March 31 on higher provisions for non-performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans.
The state-owned bank had posted a profit of Rs 592.34 crore in the January-March quarter of 2012-13. Total income increased to Rs 5,357.40 crore from Rs 4,780.75 crore, the bank said in a BSE filing.
"The main reason for decline is non-availability of MAT credit of Rs 114 crore accounted in the Q4 quarter of last year and increase in NPA provisions," Syndicate Bank Chairman and Managing Director Sudhir Kumar Jain told reporters here.
"In the last quarter of the last financial year, the NPA provision was Rs 160 crore, whereas during this quarter the NPA provision was Rs 331 crore. Because of increase in NPA provisioning, it has impacted net profit," he said.
For 2013-14, net profit slipped 14.6 per cent to Rs 1,711.46 crore from Rs 2,004.42 crore in the previous financial year. Total income in 2013-14 rose to Rs 19,945.21 crore from Rs 18,295.05 crore in 2012-13.
Operating profit stood at Rs 998 crore in the quarter, an increase of 11 per cent.
Jain said net interest income, the difference between interest earned and interest paid by the bank, was Rs 1,433 crore in the quarter compared with Rs 1,354 crore a year earlier, an increase of 7 per cent.
