The Commercial Bank of Ceylon Ltd. that has boosted both income and profits during the first half of the current financial year has nearly doubled provisions made for possible credit losses from a year earlier according to an interim financial statement. Despite this, its mid-year profit was up 34.5% from the first half of last year.

Turnover during the six months ended June 30, 1998, at Rs. 1.79 billion was up from Rs. 1.74 billion a year earlier while net banking income had grown appreciably to Rs. 410.3 million from the previous year's Rs. 295.5 ,million. Non-banking income during the period under review was down to Rs. 16.5 million from Rs. 21.8 million a year earlier.

Profit before provisioning stood at a comfortable Rs. 426.9 million. The bank had however substantially increased provisions for possible credit losses during the first half with Rs. 75 million provided against Rs. 39 million a year earlier.

Despite the higher provisioning, the pre-tax profit of Rs. 351.8 million compared well with Rs. 278.3 million earned in the first half of the previous year. The tax liability rose marginally to Rs. 79 million from Rs. 75 million a year earlier and the bank's bottom line for the half-year under review read Rs. 272.8 million, up 34.5% from Rs. 202.8 million in the comparable period last year.

The Commercial Bank has an issued share capital of Rs. 348.3 million, a billion rupee reserve fund and reserves of Rs. 2.3 billion as at June 30, 1998.