RBI list of wilful defaulters has names where govt has already initiated enforcement action

 The government has cracked down on wilful defaulters of banks and commenced investigations in several of the cases outlined by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its response to an RTI query.

Many companies featuring in the list of top 50 wilful defaulters' list of RBI have had enforcement action initiated against them, including registration of FIRs.

For instance, agencies like the Enforcement Directorate (ED) have attached the assets of Gitanjali Gems and REI Agro while a red corner notice has been issued to Jatin Mehta of Winsome Diamonds. Also, extradition proceedings have been initiated against Mehul Choksi of Gitanjali Gems.

The data on wilful defaulters and their outstanding amounts is as per the data till September 30, 2019.

In a response to the RTI, the RBI has given names of defaulters which are there in the CRILC database, where banks report certain credit information of all borrowers who are having aggregate fund based and non-fund based exposure of Rs 5 crore and above.

The data pertains to the top 50 wilful defaulters and their sum of funded advances outstanding and the amount technically or prudentially written off.

The government has tightened the norms for NPAs and there is now a stringent regime, including the IBC code, under which promoters of companies which are defaulting on loans cannot continue to bleed the banks and companies.

Topping the list of defaulters is Gitanjali Gems of Mehul Choksi with an outstanding amount of Rs 5,492 crore, followed by REI Agro with Rs 4,314 crore and Winsome Diamonds with Rs 4,076 crore.

The RBI has said that banks have written off Rs 68,607 crore due from 50 top wilful defaulters.

In the Rs 2,000 crore category, there is Kanpur-based writing instruments giant, Rotomac Global Pvt Ltd, part of the famed Kothari group, which owed Rs 2,850 crore.

The others in this category include: Kudos Chemie, Punjab (Rs 2,326 crore), Ruchi Soya Industries Ltd, Indore (Rs 2,212 crore) and Zoom Developers Pvt Ltd, Gwalior (Rs 2,012 crore).

There are 18 companies in the Rs 1,000 crore segment with some prominent names like Harish R. Mehta's Ahmedabad-based Forever Precious Jewellery & Diamonds Pvt Ltd (Rs 1,962 crore), and absconder liquor baron Vijay Mallya's defunct Kingfisher Airlines Ltd (Rs 1,943 crore).

Another 25 companies fall in the sub-1K crore category with outstandings ranging from Rs 605 crore to Rs 984 crore, either individually or as group companies.

Six among the 50 top wilful defaulters are connected with the glittering diamond and/or gold jewellery industries.

No industry is sacrosanct as the top 50 willful defaulters are spread across various sectors of the economy, including IT, infrastructure, power, gold-diamond jewellery, pharma etc. IANS