“The Reserve bank of India (RBI) has apprised that the amount owed by top 50 wilful defaulters in SCBs was ₹87,295 crore as on March 31, 2023,” he said. (Parliament LIVE updates)

Of these, the top 10 owe ₹40,825 crore to schedule commercial banks (SCBs), he said and added that during the last five financial years, SCBs have written off an aggregate amount of ₹10,57,326 crore as per the provisional data available with the Reserve bank of India for the financial year 2022-23.

Choksi’s Gitanjali Gems is the biggest wilful defaulter owing ₹8,738 crore to banks. At the second position comes Era Infra Engineering Limited owing ₹5,750 crore. The next in the line are REI Agro Limited owing ₹5,148 crore, ABG Shipyard Limited – ₹4,774 crore, and Concast Steel and Power Limited – ₹3,911 crore.

A ‘wilful defaulter’ is a borrower who deliberately refuses to repay a loan despite having the means to do so.

Karad also said that the banks entering into compromise settlement in respect of borrowers categorised as fraud or wilful defaulter is not a new regulatory instruction. “”RBI had advised IBA, vide letter dated May 10, 2007, that, banks may enter into compromise settlement with wilful defaulters/ fraudulent borrowers without prejudice to the criminal proceeding underway against such borrowers and all such cases of compromise settlements should be vetted by Management Committee/Board of banks,” he said.

66,069 frauds in FY 22-23

In a separate reply, he also said that in the previous financial year, about 66,069 frauds were reported, causing a loss of ₹85.25 crore.

Last week, he had informed the Parliament that the banks have already recovered over ₹10.16 lakh crore of bad loans in the last nine years through comprehensive measures put in place.

(With PTI/Bureau inputs)