Off-balance-sheet

Obligations that create real economic exposure without appearing among the liabilities. Guarantees given to lenders of group companies, letters of credit, and certain structured arrangements all qualify.

A company with ₹1,240 crore of disputed tax claims and ₹860 crore of guarantees to related parties is carrying ₹2,100 crore of exposure that no leverage ratio computed from the balance sheet will show.

The category has shrunk. Operating leases were the largest item for decades, and the current standards brought most of them onto the balance sheet as right-of-use assets and lease liabilities. That change alone moved billions onto the books of retailers, airlines and hotel groups, and it is why leverage ratios from before and after the transition cannot be compared.

What is left lives in the notes. Read the guarantees.