Country's largest lender, State Bank of India's net profit was dragged down by 19 per cent at Rs 3299 crore in the fourth quarter which ended on March 31st, 2013 due to lower interest income and higher provisioning for bad loans.

This is the first drop in quarterly net profit in the last two years.

Net profits declined by 3% from Rs 3,396 crore in October-December quarter 2012.

However, for the full year ended March 31, 2013, net profit increased by 17 per cent to Rs 17,916 crore against Rs 15,343 crore. Operating profit remained flat at Rs 40,922 crore against Rs. 40,713 crore.

"Pressure on asset quality continued even while there was a slight decline in the number of new assets falling into the sub-standard category," said Mr. Pratip Chaudhuri, Chairman of SBI.

Gross non-performing assets in the quarter increased to 4.75 per cent from 4.44 per cent, while net NPAs grew to 2.10 per cent (1.82 per cent). On a sequential basis, however, there was an improvement in both gross and net NPA levels.

Provisioning for NPAs increased by 40 per cent on a year-on-year basis.

SBI witnessed fresh slippages of Rs 5,868 crore during the quarter.