4 banks name big loan defaulters; RBI keeps mum

According to a report by NDTV, the Central Information Commission’s (CIC) notice to the Reserve Bank of India and the Prime Minister’s office over their reluctance to make the names of wilful defaulters public, there are at least four of the top ten public sector banks, who have already made this information available on their websites.

The CIC sent a notice to the RBI and PM Narendra Modi’s office, on November 2, asking why they should not face action for failing to provide information related to wilful defaulters to the public. The notice also cited a previous Supreme Court order, and alleged that they were ‘dishonouring’ the verdict.

As per the RBI guidelines, the Credit Information Agencies has to make such information public, rather than to individual banks.

After analysing the websites of the 10 biggest public and private sector banks in the country, found none of the private sector banks had information on wilful defaulters on their website. So far, only four public sector banks have uploaded the lists of wilful defaulters, with the amounts they owe.

These four banks are — Bank of Baroda (BOB), IDBI, Punjab National Bank (PNB) and Syndicate bank. The total outstanding loan amount is approximately Rs 42,000 crore against 1,815 wilful defaulters.

PNB had listed 1,124 defaulters as of September 2018, who owe a collective Rs 23,470 crore. The list included fugitive economic offenders such as Mehul Choksi-Nirav Modi and their companies, which collectively owe around Rs 7,500 crore, and Jatin Mehta’s Winsome Diamonds and Jewellery and Forever Precious Jewellery and Diamonds owe Rs 1,648 crore. Kudos Chemie Ltd owes the bank Rs 1,302 crore and Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher Airlines, which owes almost Rs 600 crore.

162 defaulters names are enlisted in IDBI’s website, who owe Rs 11,050 crore as of October 2018.

BOB has also named 309 wilful defaulters in their March 2018 list. The list shows an approximate amount of Rs 6,261 crore, which is yet to be recovered from the market.

The Syndicate bank had 220 wilful defaulters, who owe Rs 1,159 crore, as of June 2018,

Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher Airlines owes Rs 426 crore to Bank of Baroda and Rs 696 crore to IDBI. Recently scamster Nitin Sandesara and Chetan Sandesara’s Sterling Biotech also features in IDBI’s wilful defaulter’s list and is said to owe Rs 33 crore.

Over Rs 300 crore is owed by Syndicate bank is owed from their top defaulter. Nakoda owes Rs. 116.5, Zylog systems owes Rs 149.5 crore, Zoom Developers owes Rs 80 crore and Forever Precious Jewellery and Diamonds owes Rs 308 crore to Syndicate Bank.

Other PSU banks such as State Bank of India, Bank of India, Canara Bank, Union Bank of India, Central Bank of India, and Oriental Bank of Commerce had no such information on their websites.

According to data that was presented in the Lok Sabha in July this year, 9,501 wilful defaulters owed public sector banks approximately Rs 1.3 lakh crore. The data also highlighted that the number of defaulters rose by 14% and the amount they owed also rose by 70% from March 2016 to June 2018.

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