Provisioning Norms - Advances Covered by ECGC/DICGC Guarantee

In the case of advances guaranteed by DICGC/ECGC, provision should be made only for the balance in excess of the amount guaranteed by these Corporations. Further, while arriving at the provision required to be made for doubtful assets, realisable value of the securities should first be deducted from the outstanding balance in respect of the amount guaranteed by these Corporations and then provision made as illustrated hereunder:

Example

In case the advance covered by CGTSI guarantee becomes non-performing, no provision need be made towards the guaranteed portion. The amount outstanding in excess of the guaranteed portion should be provided for as per the extant guidelines on provisioning for non-performing advances. Two illustrative examples are given below:

Example I

Example II

The lending institution should make provisions against a 'take-out finance' turning into NPA pending its take-over by the taking-over institution. As and when the asset is taken-over by the taking-over institution, the corresponding provisions could be reversed.

When exchange rate movements of Indian rupee turn adverse, the outstanding amount of foreign currency denominated loans (where actual disbursement was made in Indian Rupee) which becomes overdue, goes up correspondingly, with its attendant implications of provisioning requirements. Such assets should not normally be revalued. In case such assets need to be revalued as per requirement of accounting practices or for any other requirement, the following procedure may be adopted:

The loss on revaluation of assets has to be booked in the bank's Profit & Loss Account.

Besides the provisioning requirement as per Asset Classification, banks should treat the full amount of the Revaluation Gain relating to the corresponding assets, if any, on account of Foreign Exchange Fluctuation as provision against the particular assets.

In terms of Section 43(D) of the Income Tax Act 1961, income by way of interest in relation to such categories of bad and doubtful debts as may be prescribed having regard to the guidelines issued by the RBI in relation to such debts, shall be chargeable to tax in the previous year in which it is credited to the bank's profit and loss account or received, whichever is earlier.

This stipulation is not applicable to provisioning required to be made as indicated above. In other words, amounts set aside for making provision for NPAs as above are not eligible for tax deductions.

Therefore, the banks should either make full provision as per the guidelines or write-off such advances and claim such tax benefits as are applicable, by evolving appropriate methodology in consultation with their auditors/tax consultants. Recoveries made in such accounts should be offered for tax purposes as per the rules.

Banks may write-off advances at Head Office level, even though the relative advances are still outstanding in the branch books. However, it is necessary that provision is made as per the classification accorded to the respective accounts. In other words, if an advance is a loss asset, 100 percent provision will have to be made therefor.