The finance ministry Tuesday said that the top 50 wilful defaulters, which include companies like fugitive Mehul Choksi’s Gitanjali Gems Limited, and Era Infra Engineering Limited, REI Agro Limited, and ABG Shipyard Limited, among others collectively owe a staggering amount of ₹87,295 crore to various banks and financial institutions. Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Karad said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha.
“The Reserve bank of India (RBI) has apprised that the amount owed by top 50 wilful defaulters in SCBs was ₹87,295 crore as on March 31, 2023,” he said. (Parliament LIVE updates)
Of these, the top 10 owe ₹40,825 crore to schedule commercial banks (SCBs), he said and added that during the last five financial years, SCBs have written off an aggregate amount of ₹10,57,326 crore as per the provisional data available with the Reserve bank of India for the financial year 2022-23.
Choksi’s Gitanjali Gems is the biggest wilful defaulter owing ₹8,738 crore to banks. At the second position comes Era Infra Engineering Limited owing ₹5,750 crore. The next in the line are REI Agro Limited owing ₹5,148 crore, ABG Shipyard Limited – ₹4,774 crore, and Concast Steel and Power Limited – ₹3,911 crore.
A ‘wilful defaulter’ is a borrower who deliberately refuses to repay a loan despite having the means to do so.
Karad also said that the banks entering into compromise settlement in respect of borrowers categorised as fraud or wilful defaulter is not a new regulatory instruction. “”RBI had advised IBA, vide letter dated May 10, 2007, that, banks may enter into compromise settlement with wilful defaulters/ fraudulent borrowers without prejudice to the criminal proceeding underway against such borrowers and all such cases of compromise settlements should be vetted by Management Committee/Board of banks,” he said.
66,069 frauds in FY 22-23
In a separate reply, he also said that in the previous financial year, about 66,069 frauds were reported, causing a loss of ₹85.25 crore.
Last week, he had informed the Parliament that the banks have already recovered over ₹10.16 lakh crore of bad loans in the last nine years through comprehensive measures put in place.
(With PTI/Bureau inputs)
