KARACHI - The NBP has the lowest percentage of written off loans as compared to assets, which currently stand at 0.83 per cent. This was stated by a NBP spokesman while refuting the media reports which claimed that NBP has written off more loans than any other financial institutions. NBP spokesman trough a press statement issued here on Friday stated that on the basis of published annual accounts, the NBP has significantly lower write-off ratio. The principal written off by HBL, UBL and NBP during this period excluding waivers, which represent accrued mark up not taken into the account, is as follows: During 2000-2008, HBL principal written offs stood at Rs 17.789 billion against average assets of Rs 492.246 billion at 3.61 per cent of total assets. According to NBP statement, the information about the other institutions is being provided simply to serve as a comparison reference and this information has been extracted from published annual accounts available to the public. NBP further said that of the cumulative write offs of Rs 6.723 billion over the period 2000-2008, 68 per cent were mandatory settlements (38 per cent represents settlement under SBP Circular 29, 18 per cent represents NAB related settlements, 7 per cent represents settlement made on the advice of committee for revival of sick industrial units and SBP schemes, 5 per cent Court auctions), while the balance of 32 per cent represents settlements under various NBP incentive schemes for small borrowers, widows and destitute persons. During this period, relief in shape of write offs was given to 23,984 borrowers where amounts written off were upto Rs. 500,000.