Top 50 willful defaulters owe Rs 87,295 crore to banks

The Finance Ministry has informed the Rajya Sabha that the top 50 willful defaulters owe Rs 87,295 crore to banks and financial institutions as on March 31, 2023. These willful defaulters include fugitive Mehul Choksi's Gitanjali Gems Ltd, Rishi Agarwal's ABG Shipyard Ltd, REI Agro Ltd and Era Infra Engineering Ltd.

Minister of State for Finance Dr. Bhagwat Karad said in a written reply that the top 10 willful defaulters owe Rs 40,825 crore to Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs). On the other hand, Gitanjali Gems of fugitive Mehul Choksi is the biggest willful defaulter. Banks owe Rs 8,738 crore on it.

The other top 10 willful defaulters are:

Era Infra Engineering Ltd (Rs 5,750 crore)

REI Agro Ltd (Rs 5,148 crore)

ABG Shipyard Ltd (Rs 4,774 crore)

Concast Steel and Power Ltd (Rs 3,911 crore)

Rotomac Global Pvt. Ltd (Rs 2,894 crore)

Winsome Diamonds and Jewellery Ltd (Rs 2,846 crore)

Frost International Ltd (Rs 2,518 crore)

Shri Lakshmi Cotsyn Ltd (Rs 2,393 crore)

Amtek Auto Ltd (Rs 2,298 crore)

Karad also said that 66,069 cases of fraud were reported in 2022-23, resulting in a loss of Rs 85.25 crore. Last year, 65,893 cases of fraud were reported, resulting in a loss of Rs 115.36 crore. He said that the RBI has been issuing instructions to regulated entities from time to time to prevent fraudulent online transactions.

The government has taken steps to recover the loans from the willful defaulters. Under RBI regulations, willful defaulters do not get fresh loans and are not allowed to set up new ventures for 5 years. The government has also brought a law to confiscate the assets of fugitive economic offenders who fled India like Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and Vijay Mallya.

The Finance Ministry said that it is committed to recovering the loans from the willful defaulters and will take all necessary steps to do so.