Top 50 wilful defaulters owe Rs 87,295 crore to banks: Finance ministry

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Gitanjali Gems Limited, Era Infra Engineering Limited, REI Agro Limited, and ABG Shipyard Limited owe Rs 87,295 crore to banks and financial institutions. Of this, top 10 wilful defaulters owe Rs 40,825 crore to schedule commercial banks (SCBs), Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Karad said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha.

SCBs have written off an aggregate amount of Rs 10,57,326 crore during the last five financial years (RBI provisional data for FY 2022-23), he said. «The Reserve bank of India (RBI) has apprised that the amount owed by top 50 wilful defaulters in SCBs was Rs 87,295 crore as on March 31, 2023,» he said.

Fugitive Mehul Choksi's Gitanjali Gems is the biggest wilful defaulter owing Rs 8,738 crore to banks. It is followed by Era Infra Engineering Limited owing Rs 5,750 crore, REI Agro Limited Rs 5,148 crore, ABG Shipyard Limited Rs 4,774 crore, and Concast Steel and Power Limited Rs 3,911 crore.

Other wilful defaults are Rotomac Global Private Limited Rs 2,894 crore, Winsome Diamonds and Jewellery Limited Rs 2,846 crore, Frost International Limited Rs 2,518 crore, Shri Lakshmi Cotsyn Limited Rs 2,180 crore and Zoom Developers Private Limited Rs 2,066 crore. Karad said the provision enabling banks to enter into compromise settlement in respect of borrowers categorised as fraud or wilful defaulter is not a new regulatory instruction and has been the settled regulatory stance for more than fifteen years.