Dragged down by a sharp rise in provisioning for bad loans, state-run lender Syndicate Bank has reported a loss of Rs 119.67 crore for the third quarter ended December 31.
In the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal, the Manipal-headquartered bank had posted a net profit of Rs 305 crore.
The bank's provisioning rose to Rs 875.23 crore for the third quarter as against Rs 290.41 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.
It parked a substantial amount towards deferred tax liability and provisions that led to the loss on its books.
As advised by RBI, bank has decided to recognise deferred tax liability (DTL) in respect of difference in valuation of held to maturity (HTM) securities between accounting income and taxable income, it said.
"The bank has estimated and provided an amount of Rs 423.18 crore towards the same during the nine months ended December 2015," the bank's Chief Executive and Managing Director Arun Shrivastava told reporters here.
"Following the opinion of expert advisory committee of ICAI, the bank has recognised deferred tax asset (DTA) on the difference in the provision for NPA... And the DTA of Rs 258.87 crore has been recognised as on December," it said.
Shrivastava said the bank had made adequate provisioning and would make more in 2016 so that "we do not have hiccups next year" and sought to allay apprehensions, saying "there is no cause for worry as if something has gone wrong."
He said the bank had acted as per RBI advice and added, "provisioning should be enough to insulate from the future shocks also".
Gross NPA ratio stood at 4.61 per cent in Q3 as against 3.60 per cent in the year ago corresponding period, he said. Net NPA ratio was reported at 3.04 per cent compared with 2.38 per cent in Q3 of last fiscal.
The total income increased to Rs 6,188.25 crore for the quarter ended December 31, from Rs 5,921.58 crore for last year.
The bank's domestic business increased from Rs 3,72,660 crore as on December 31,2014, to Rs 3,91,664 crore, a 5 per cent year on year growth, he said.
