The Treasury Department said on Tuesday that the top 50 intentional defaulters, including companies such as Mehul Choksi's Gitanjali Gems Limited, Era Infra Engineering Limited, REI Agro Limited and ABG Shipyard Limited, among others, owe a staggering amount of Rs 87,295. crore for different banks and financial institutions. State Finance Minister Bhagwat Karad said in a written reply to Rajya Sabha.
"The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced that the outstanding amount of the top 50 voluntary defaulters at SCB is 87,295 crore as of 31 March 2023," the bank said.
Of these, the top 10 banks owe ₹40,825 crore to commercial banks (SCBs), he said, adding that over the past 5 years, SCBs have written off a total amount of ₹10,57,326 crore according to the data. Provisional data is available from the Reserve Bank of China. India for the fiscal year 2022-23.
Gitanjali Gems of Choksi is the largest voluntary default before ₹8,738 crore for banks. In second place is Era Infra Engineering Limited owed ₹5,750 crore. Next on the list is REI Agro Limited leading the way with ₹5,148 crore, ABG Shipyard Limited – ₹4,774 crore, and Concast Steel and Power Limited – ₹3,911 crore.
A "debt defaulter" is a borrower who knowingly refuses to repay a loan when he can afford it.
Karad also says that banks reaching settlements for borrowers classified as fraudulent or knowingly default are not new regulatory guidelines. "" The RBI advised the IBA, in a letter dated May 10, 2007, that banks could settle with voluntary defaulters/fraudulent borrowers without affecting proceedings. Criminal proceedings are ongoing against those borrowers and all such settlements must be reviewed by the Banks' Boards/Boards," he said. 66,069 fraud in fiscal year 22-23
In a separate response, he also said that in the previous financial year, about 66,069 fraud cases were reported resulting in a loss of 85.25 crore.
Last week, he informed parliament that banks had recovered more than $10.16 trillion in bad loans over the past nine years through the comprehensive measures put in place.
