Write-Off Worries

The country's largest bank, the State Bank of India (SBI), has written off Rs 1.54 lakh crore of bad assets in the last four years. While the size of the written off amount is not big when compared to the Rs 36.8 lakh crore balance sheet size of the bank, the amount is equal to the balance sheet of mid-sized Federal Bank or Bank of Maharashtra. In 2018/19 alone, the write-off of Rs 61,663 crore is almost 40 per cent of the last four years' total. SBI has provided for these loans, but that raises questions about its recovery efforts.