The public sector lender, Bank of Baroda's net profit declined by 32 per cent to Rs 1029 crore in fourth quarter of the financial year 2012-13 as compared to Rs 1519 crore, a year ago.

The bank has set aside Rs 1598 crore to cover potential loan losses in the fourth quarter, up from Rs 844 crore, the bank had set aside in the same period last year.

During the reporting quarter, Slippages increased by 79 per cent to Rs 7983 crore from Rs 4465 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

The increase of non-performing assets (NPAs) in the Q4 was due to poor performance of the bank's overseas portfolio from where the bank gets about 29 per cent of its total business. The bank's overseas NPA increased to Rs 880 crore in the quarter ended March from Rs 225 crore, a year ago.

"Domestic NPAs will stabilize around the current levels for the next two quarters, after which it will improve," Mr. S. S. Mundra, Chairman and Managing Director of BOB, said.

Slightly over 50 per cent of the new slippages during the quarter came from the corporate loan portfolio due to prolonged industrial slowdown.

Bank of Baroda said it wrote off loans worth Rs 1,200 crore in the fourth quarter.

The bank restructured loans worth Rs 2,843 crore in the quarter ended March 31, 2013, compared with Rs 5,280 crore in the corresponding quarter last year, Mr. Mundra said.

Mr. Mundra added that the bank's deposit and credit growth will be about two per cent more than the industry average.