By Raju Vernekar
Pune, Dec 16:
Over 1000 companies have defaulted in loan repayment to the tune of Rs 1.08 lakh crore to different banks, who have failed to recover the amounts, per the information provided by RBI in response to an RTI query.
In a reply to an application filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has stated that there are 1913 wilful defaulters, who together owed Rs1.46 lakh crore to banks as on June 2020.
Pune-based RTI activist Vivek Velankar had filed the RTI application with RBI to get information on wilful defaulters. “The information shared by RBI reveals that there are 264 wilful defaulters who defaulted on a loan of Rs100 crore and above. There are 23 defaulters with an outstanding of over Rs1,000 crore and their dues accrue to Rs 43,324 crore. Wilful defaulters who owe between Rs500 crore to Rs1,000 crore to banks are 34 and their outstanding is Rs 22,105 crore. There are 207 wilful defaulters in the Rs100 crore to Rs500 crore default range and together they owe Rs 43,095 crore to PSBs. This also means there are total 264 wilful defaulters with bad loans of Rs100 crore and above and owe Rs1,08,527 crore to banks.”
RBI told Velankar that the concerned banks have filed cases to recover their dues from these wilful defaulters. While RBI shared this information under the RTI, Velankar feels since banks are submitting these lists of wilful defaulters under a regulatory mandate, the central bank should suo motu publish this information on its website to create awareness among citizens and bank customers.
Topping the wilful defaulters’ list is Mehul Choksi’s scam-hit company, Gitanjali Gems Ltd, which owed Rs 5,747.05 crore, besides other group companies, Gili India Ltd and Nakshatra Brands Ltd, which had taken loans of Rs 1,446 crore and Rs 1,109.16 crore, respectively.
The second on the list is REI Agro Ltd, with an amount of Rs 3,516 crore, and its directors Sandip Jhujhunwala and Sanjay Jhunjhunwala are already under the scanner of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for the past more than a year.
The next on the list is Frost International Ltd with an outstanding of Rs 3,097.64 crore. It is followed by the absconding diamantaire Jatin Mehta’s Winsome Diamonds & Jewellery owing Rs2,975.73 crore and which is being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for various bank frauds.
Winsome Diamonds and Jewellery Limited owe-Rs 2975.73 crore, while Zoom Developers Pvt Ltd are yet to clear outstanding debt of -Rs 2580.61crore. Kanpur-based writing instruments giant, Rotomac Global Pvt Ltd, part of the famed Kothari group, is next on the list with an outstanding of Rs 2,530.95 crore.
The others among the top-10 wilful defaulters include, Kudos Chemie, Punjab (Rs 1,948.12 crore), ABG Shipyard Ltd (Rs 1,874.90 crore), Transstroy (India) Ltd (Rs 1,861.11 crore) and Forever Precious Jewellery and Diamonds Pvt Ltd (Rs 1,653.25 crore). Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher Airlines Ltd is at the 15th place on the list with dues of Rs 1,335.26 crore.
Interestingly, the outstanding debts are higher compared with the information shared by the All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) in July this year. As part of its nationwide campaign to celebrate the bank nationalisation day, the AIBEA had released a list of wilful defaulters of the public sector banks (PSBs). The Mehul Choksi-owned Gitanjali Gems Ltd, with its default of Rs 4,644 crore to the Punjab National Bank (PNB) topped the list. It was followed by ABG Shipyard Ltd (Rs1,875 crore, owed to the State Bank of India-SBI), REI Agro Ltd (Rs 1,745 crore, UCO Bank), Ruchi Soya Industries Ltd (Rs 1,618 crore, SBI), Gili India Ltd (Rs 1,447 core, PNB), Winsome Diamonds & Jewellery Ltd (Rs 1,390 crore, Central Bank of India-CBI), Kudos Chemie Ltd (Rs 1,301crore, PNB), Nakshatra Brands Ltd (Rs 1,109 crore, PNB), Coastal Projects Ltd (Rs 984 crore, SBI) and Winsome Diamonds & Jewellery Ltd (Rs 892 crore, PNB). These top 10 defaulters together had an outstanding of Rs17,005 crore to state-run lenders.
Information provided by RBI to Velankar does not reveal names of the banks who had given these loans. However, data shared by AIBEA shows that among the 17 public sector lenders, SBI has the highest number of wilful defaulters at 685, who together had defaulted on loans of Rs 43,887 crore. It is followed by PNB, which has 325 wilful defaulters with an outstanding of Rs 22,370 crore. The data shared by the bank employees’ union, however, has no information about wilful defaulters in Union Bank of India (UBI) and IDBI Bank Ltd.
The UBI, which had written off Rs 26,027 crore as bad loans in past years, stalled an RTI query from Velankar on recoveries and on sharing names of big defaulters whose bad debt of Rs100 crore and above were written off.
“Public sector banks as well as the union government need to show some willingness and take steps to recover these dues from wilful defaulters. In fact, if the cases against wilful defaulter are decided in a fast-track court, then just from 264 wilful defaulters, banks can recover over Rs1.08 lakh crore,” Velankar, who is also President of the Sajag Nagrik Manch, said..
List of Wilful Defaulters declared by Public Sector Banks along with Amount owed as on June 30th, 2020 begins with Concast Steel and Power Limited, Kolkata, (Rs 1585.73 crore),includes Surya Vinayak Industries Ltd, New Delhi (Rs 1527.68 crore),Era Infra Engineering Ltd, New Delhi (Rs 1476.62 crore) Gilli India Ltd, Mumbai (Rs 1446.69 crore), Kingfisher Airlines Ltd, Mumbai (Rs 1335.26 crore) and ends with Indian Technomac Co Ltd, Himachal Pradesh (Rs 724.12 crore).
