As of March 22 , top 50 wilful defaulters in India owed Rs 92,570 crore to the banks, Minister of state for finance Bhagwat Karad told the Lok Sabha on Monday.
It is to be noted Wilful defaulters have the ability to repay the loans, but they are unwilling to do so.
At Rs 7,848 crore, Gitanjali Gems, founded by now-fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi, was the biggest defaulter.
Era Infra Engineering (Rs 5,879 crore),
Rei Agro (Rs 4,803 crore),
Concast Steel and Power (Rs 4,596 crore),
ABG Shipyard (Rs 3,708 crore),
Frost International (Rs 3,311 crore),
Winsome Diamonds and Jewellery (Rs 2,931 crore),
Rotomac Global (Rs 2,893 crore),
Coastal Projects (Rs 2,311 crore) and
Zoom Developers (Rs 2,147 crore) are the other big wilful defaulters.
The public sector banks have recovered an aggregate amount of Rs 4.8 trillion, including a recovery of Rs 1.03 trillion from written-off loans during the last five financial years, Karad added.
The largest bank in india SBI has written off bad loans worth Rs 19,666 crore in 2021-22, followed by Union Bank of India which has written off bad loans worth Rs 19,484 crore.,
Other Public sector banks Punjab National Bank has written off bad loans worth Rs 18,312 crore, Bank of Baroda has written off Rs 17,967 crore, Bank of India has written off Rs 10,443 crore), Indian Bank has written off Rs 8,347 crore, and Canara Bank has written off Rs 8,210 crore
Private banks ICICI Bank has written off Rs 10,148 crore, HDFC Bank has written off Rs 9,405 crore, Axis Bank has written off Rs 9,126 crore he said.
According to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), defaulters are not allowed to take new loans and set up new ventures for five years. The union government has brought in a law to bring fugitive wilful defaulters under India’s legal net.
