Dragged down by higher provisioning on non-performing assets, particularly from the agriculture sector, and lower growth in core income, Allahabad Bank saw net losses widen to ₹1,986 crore for the quarter ended December 31,2019, when compared to a net loss of ₹733 crore in the same period last year.

NPA provisioning increased to ₹3,002 crore during the quarter under review whencompared to ₹1,900 crore in the same period last year. The quantum of agriculture NPA in Q3 was around ₹2,500 crore.

The provision coverage ratio increased to 82.42 per cent as on December 2019, against 69.64 per cent in December 2018. The net interest income dropped by around 4 per cent to ₹1,338 crore for the quarter under review, against ₹1,399 crore in the same period last year.

Operating profit was, however, up by around 17 per cent to ₹898 crore during the October-December quarter this year, when compared to ₹769 crore last year.

The bank has also made additional provisioning of ₹1,801 crore over and above the provisions required to be made in terms of prudential norms of RBI to ensure compliance with the PCA (prompt corrective action) norms of NNPA, the bank said in the notes to accounts to stock exchanges on Tuesday. The percentage of gross non-performing assets (NPA) to total advances went up to 18.93 per cent (17.81 per cent). However, net NPA came down to 5.13 per cent (7.70 per cent).