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Microlesson · 5-min read

Special Categories of Advances – Natural Calamities, Consortium, Staff

## Special Categories of Advances

### A. Agricultural Advances Affected by Natural Calamities

When natural calamities affect agricultural borrowers, banks may provide the following relief:

1. Conversion of short-term production loan into a term loan.

2. Re-schedulement of the repayment period.

3. Fresh sanctioning of a term loan.

> NPA Classification Rule: After relief, the account is classified as NPA as per the rescheduled terms (i.e., the clock resets to the new repayment schedule).

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### B. Consortium Advances

Definition: A consortium advance is where two or more banks jointly advance a loan to a single borrower.

Example: Raju takes a loan of ₹10,000 from: SBI – ₹5,000 | SIDFC – ₹3,000 | ICICI – ₹2,000.

Key Rules:

  • The bank with the highest share leads the consortium.
  • The Lead Bank is responsible for computing Drawing Power and allocating shares to other member banks.
  • Other member banks will treat their share of the advance as NPA if they are not receiving their share of repayments.

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### C. Advances to Staff

Type of Staff LoanAccounting Treatment
Interest-bearing staff advances (staff as borrower, bank as lender)Included in the Advance Portfolio of the bank
Non-interest bearing / concessional loans (e.g., car loan, home loan at concessional rate, interest-free loan)Shown as 'Others' under Schedule of Other Assets

NPA Applicability for Staff Advances:

  • Where the bank deducts EMI from salary, the probability of NPA is very low.
  • If an arrangement exists where principal is paid before interest, interest is not to be considered overdue from that quarter.

Worked example

### Example 1

Consortium NPA – Which Bank Classifies?

A borrower takes ₹10,000 from a consortium: SBI (₹5,000), Bank B (₹3,000), Bank C (₹2,000). SBI leads the consortium.

The borrower stops paying Bank C's share. Bank C does not receive its share.

→ Bank C classifies its ₹2,000 advance as NPA.

→ SBI and Bank B need not classify their shares as NPA if they are still receiving payments on their respective shares.

### Example 2

Staff Loan Accounting Classification:

A bank employee takes a home loan at a concessional rate of 4% (market rate 10%).

→ This is a concessional loan → treated as 'Others' under Other Assets (NOT in the advance portfolio).

The same employee takes an education loan at normal bank rates.

→ This is an interest-bearing staff advance → included in the Advances Portfolio.

⚠️ Common exam mistakes

  • Assuming that once a natural calamity reschedulement occurs, the account is automatically NPA — it is not; NPA is now assessed against the new rescheduled terms.
  • In consortium advances, assuming all banks must classify as NPA simultaneously — each bank independently assesses NPA based on receipt of its own share.
  • Including all staff loans in the advance portfolio — only interest-bearing staff advances go in the advance portfolio; concessional/interest-free loans go under Other Assets.
  • Treating staff loan EMI deductions from salary as equivalent to a regular loan repayment for NPA purposes without considering the interest-before-principal arrangement.
Reference: — RBI Master Circular on Prudential Norms on Income Recognition, Asset Classification and Provisioning
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