Chart of the Week: Check out how much bad loans Indian banks still bear

Gross NPAs climbed from 8.93% in September to 10.14% in March.

Indian banks still bear the weight of a massive debt burden as gross non performing assets (NPAs) continue to rise after peaking at 10.14% in March after moderating from 9.04% in June 2017 to 8.93% in September 2017, according to CARE Ratings. 

In value terms, the NPAs of these 26 banks were Rs 7.31 lkh crore and have increased by Rs 2.5 lkh crore this year over March 2017.

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Although NPA rates for public sector banks remained within a stable range of 11-12% in Q1, it rose by 163 basis points in Q4 to 13.41%. 

Also read: Bad loans bog down Indian state banks with $1.4b loss in Q4

Private banks were not exempt from this upward trend as bad loans spiked in March after moderating in December. However, there were five notable private banks who were able to halt the growth of stressed asset formation as they posted NPA ratio of less than 2% whilst another five private lenders clocked in low bad loan levels between 2-5%. 

The total provisions made during the year (of which the most would be for NPAs) increased from Rs 43,611 cr to Rs 105,150 cr - an increase of 141%, CARE Ratings added.