With dues of Rs 7,848 crore, Mehul Choksi tops list of wilful defaulters

New Delhi, Dec 21: The government has told Parliament that the top 50 wilful defaulters collectively owed Indian banks Rs 92,570 crore and Mehul Choksi tops the list.

Minister of State for Finance, Bhagat Karad in a written reply told the Lok Sabha that Gitanjali Gems owned by the fugitive diamond merchant Mehul Choksi defaulted on loans to the tune of Rs 7,848 crore.

Next on the list of biggest defaulters were Era Infra who owe Rs 5,879 crore. Third is Reigo Agro with a default of Rs 4,803 crore. The report was given while citing data from the Reserve Bank of India.

Others in the list are Concast Steel and Power (Rs 4,596 crore), ABG Shipyard (Rs 3,708 crore), Frost International (Rs 3,311 crore), Winsome Diamonds and Jewellery (Rs 2,931 crore), Rotomac Global (2,893 crore), Coastal Projects (Rs 2,311 crore) and Zoom Developers (2,147 crore).

A wilful defaulter is a financial term which used for borrowers who have the means to pay the loan but do not. These borrowers are debarred from any facility of banks.

The government also said that gross non-performing assets of state-owned banks had dropped by over Rs 3 lakh crore after it had peaked at Rs 8.9 lakh crore.

The NPAs have come down to Rs 5.41 lakh crore following the RBI's Asset Quality Review.

Further Karad also said that the banks had written off Rs 10.1 lakh crore loans. India's largest public sector bank State Bank of India topped the list with Rs 2 lakh crore write-offs. Second was the Punjab National Bank with Rs 67,214 crore.

Among the private lenders, ICICI Bank wrote off the highest Rs 50,514 crore of loans followed by HDFC at Rs 34,782 crore.

Karad said that the government's commitment to action against such persons remain intact. He said that measures were also been taken to recover the loan amount.

The Central Bureau of Investigation had last week registered three cases against Choksi based on the complaint of the Deputy General Manager of the Punjab National Bank. The complaint against Choksi is allegedly for cheating the bank for Rs 6,746 crore.