According to the Union Finance Ministry, the top 50 loan defaulters in India owe banks and other financial institutions a total of 87,295 crore. The largest wilful defaulter is fugitive Mehul Choksi’s Gitanjali Gems, which owes banks 8,738 crores. Era Infra Engineering Limited, REI Agro Limited, ABG Shipyard Limited, and Concast Steel and Power Limited are next, each owing 5,750 crores, 5,148 crores, 4,774 crores, and 3,911 crores, respectively.
Rotomac Global Private Limited ($2,894 crore), Winsome Diamonds and Jewellery Limited ($2,846 crore), Frost International Limited ($2,518 crore), Shri Lakshmi Cotsyn Limited ($2,180 crore), and Zoom Developers Private Limited ($2,066 crore) are some other companies that have made deliberate defaults. Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Karad stated that the top 10 willful defaulters owe scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) a total of 40,825 crore in a written response to the Rajya Sabha.
He also added that SCBs have written off an amount of ₹10,57,326 crore during the last five financial years. The regulation’s established position has been that banks may enter into compromise settlements with respect to borrowers classified as fraud or wilful defaulters for more than fifteen years. According to separate reports, 66,069 frauds were reported in the year 2022-23 which caused a loss of ₹85.25 crore. A year before, 65,893 frauds were reported causing losses of ₹115.36 crore.
Karad claimed that the RBI periodically issues different directions to the regulated firms in an effort to stop fraudulent internet transactions. “In June 2016 and October 2018, the RBI, respectively, released detailed circulars on the cyber security framework for banks and urban cooperative banks. According to these circulars, banks were urged to implement a board-approved cyber security policy that outlined a strategy for dealing with cyber risks in light of the complexity of company operations and acceptable levels of risk, he added.
A uniform platform for obtaining loans under a few credit-linked government programmes was made available with the establishment of the JanSamarth Portal. He stated that since the JanSamarth Portal’s inception, a total of 23,276 complaints have been filed, out of which 21,250 have been resolved within a reasonable amount of time.
