Public sector banks have written off loans worth ₹6.56 lakh crore in the last five years from 2019-20 to FY24, according to data shared by Pankaj Chaudhary, minister of state for finance, in response to a question in the Parliament.

State Bank of India (SBI) topped the loan write-off list among state-run lenders. SBI wrote off ₹1.46 lakh crore in five years through FY24. Punjab National Bank (PNB) came in second with loan write-offs worth ₹82,449 crore. Union Bank of India, which wrote off loans amounting to ₹82,323 crore, stood third by a narrow margin ₹126 crore. Bank of Baroda wrote off loans worth ₹77,177 crore.

State-owned banks wrote off loans worth ₹42,035 crore in the first six months of the ongoing financial year (2024-25). Of this, SBI’s share was ₹8,312 crore while PNB’s stood at ₹8,061 crore. Union Bank of India, Bank of Baroda and Canara Bank wrote off loans worth ₹6,344 crore, ₹5,925 crore and ₹5,088 crore respectively in the first half of FY25.

While responding to a question posed by Lok Sabha MP Anand Bhadauriya, MoS Finance Chaudhary says banks write-off non-performing assets (NPAs) including those in respect of which full provisioning has been made on completion of four years, as per the Reserve Bank of India guidelines and policy approved by banks’ boards.

“Such write-off does not result in waiver of liabilities of borrowers and therefore, it does not benefit the borrower. The borrowers continue to be liable for repayment and banks continue to pursue recovery actions initiated in these accounts through various recovery mechanisms available to them, such as filing of a suit in civil courts or in Debts Recovery Tribunals, action under the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002, filing of cases in the National Company Law Tribunal under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016, through negotiated settlement/compromise, and through sale of NPAs,” the minister says.