As many as 5,610 wilful defaulters owe around Rs 58,792 crore to several public sector and private sector banks across the country, according to the All India Bank Employees' Association. The data, updated till March 2016, lists names of such defaulters, and states that nationalised banks, with 3,192 such accounts, are owed the most – Rs 28,775 crore, reported Business Standard.
State Bank of India and its five associate banks have 1,546 accounted held by such defaulters, and are owed Rs 18,576 crore. Punjab National Bank, Central Bank of India and Oriental Bank of Commerce are among the national banks that have the highest default amounts. Private sector banks that have the high default values include Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank and Indusind Bank. Foreign banks such as Standard Chartered Bank, Doha Bank and Deutsche Bank also figure in the list made public on Tuesday.
AIBEA General Secretary C H Venkatachalam, said, "The government and the RBI are not taking tough measures to recover the bad loans. Even their [defaulters'] names are not being published." According to him, people have the right to know who the loan defaulters are as loans are given from public money. He added, "When poor borrowers are harassed, corporate defaulters are given all concessions."
The association said bad loans of public sector banks have gone up tenfold since 2002 – from Rs 54,673 crore to Rs 5,39,995 crore.
Here are some of the biggest defaulters and what they owe:
- Winsome Diamonds and Jewellery Ltd – Rs 2,266 crore
- Forever Precious jewellery & Diamonds – Rs 1,001 crore
- Kingfisher Airlines Ltd – Rs 1,201 crore
- Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd – Rs 884 crore
- Indian Technomac Co Ltd - Rs 625 crore
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