₹16.35 lakh crore in NPAs Written off by Banks between 2014-15 & 2023-24

• Sai Krishna Muthyanolla

TL; DR
Between 2014-15 and 2023-24, banks in India wrote off ₹16.35 lakh crore in NPAs, averaging ₹1.6 lakh crore annually. Large industries and services made up 56% of these write-offs, with PSBs accounting for the majority. SBI alone wrote off ₹1.15 lakh crore.

Context
Loans written off by scheduled commercial banks in India have become a recurring subject of debate, raising questions on financial stability and borrower accountability. While writing off does not absolve borrowers of repayment, it highlights the scale of stressed assets in the financial system and raises concerns about accountability and credit discipline.

Who compiles this data?
The data on the bank-wise, year-wise, category-wise (Agriculture, MSMEs, Services, Retail loans, etc), the number and amount of loans written off is compiled by the Reserve Bank of India.

Where can I download clean & structured data related to NPAs Written Off?
Clean, Structured, ready-to-use datasets on loans written off covering bank groups, categories, and details of number and amount can be downloaded from Dataful.

Key Insights

• Between 2014-15 and 2023-24, approximately 16.35 Lakh Crores NPAs were written off by Scheduled Commercial Banks with an average of 1.6 Lakh Crore every year.
• Within these, ‘Large Industries and Services’ accounted for 56% of the total, highlighting the vulnerability of that sector.

• Public Sector Banks (PSBs) contributed about 60% of total NPA write-offs between 2019-20 and 2023-24.
• Between 2020-21 and 2024-25, SBI wrote off ₹1.15 lakh crore, followed by Union Bank (₹85,000 crore), PNB (₹81,000 crore), and Bank of Baroda (₹70,000 crore).

Why does it matter?
Writing off NPAs matters because it weakens our banks, limits fresh lending, and questions borrower accountability. When such huge sums are written off, it signals deeper problems and shakes people’s trust in the system.

Key numbers:

• NPAs Written Off by Scheduled Commercial Banks (in Crores)
  58,786 (2014-15) → 2,36,265 (2018-19)→ 1,70,270 (2023-24)
• NPAs Written Off by Public Sector Banks (in Crores)
  1,33,384 (2020-21) → 1,27,327 (2022-23)→ 91,261 (2024-25 (provisional))