Ireda Expects Quick Resolution Of Rs 433-Crore Waste-To-Energy Bad Loan
IREDA’s net NPA increased to Rs 1,024 crore in Q3 FY2025, with CMD Pradip Kumar Das attributing the rise to a Rs 433-crore default in the waste-to-energy category.
The rise in net non-performing assets for the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Ltd. in the December 2024 quarter was primarily due to a single Rs 433-crore default in its waste-to-energy category, the company’s Chairman and Managing Director Pradip Kumar Das told NDTV Profit on Monday.
Ireda reported a net NPA of Rs 1,024 crore in the December quarter as compared to Rs 757 crore in the same quarter last fiscal.
“Only with one group, one account of Rs 433 crores new net NPA has been added. They could not pay (the dues for) 90 days,” Das said while highlighting that the company has significantly reduced defaults over the last 18 quarters.
He mentioned that the NPA addition has come from the waste-to-energy category, which comprises 1% of the company’s Rs 69,000 crore loan book.
“That belongs to our waste-to-energy category. If you look at our total loan portfolio of Rs 69,000 crore around, and 1% of assets are in that segment. So, therefore, it should not be a major concern for Ireda,” he said,
The Ireda chairman revealed that the loan was sanctioned to the company before 2022, and it has all raw materials and agreements in place.
“See, this is the sanction which was in place before 2022. And it's a waste-to-energy project, and they have a raw materials agreement with the municipality. The project execution got delayed because this was severely impacted during the Covid time, and the promoter was taking various wins,” Das said.
He assured that the company was in talks with investors and that Ireda would remove this account from its NPA book soon.
“They are talking with global agencies who are into greenhouse investment. So, we are quite confident that they will work out to take this account out of NPA as soon as possible,” the top executive said.
It is just a matter of time before everything is set in place, Das said.
“So only this question of timing. So normally, in this kind of project, if you have not obtained the agreement and if you do not have raw material or confirmed sources, then that is of concern. But that is not the case here,” he reassured.
Shares of Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Ltd. were trading 3.79% higher at Rs 207.45 apiece on the NSE, as of 12:00 p.m. on Monday,. compared to a 0.43% rise in the benchmark Nifty 50.
