Unions to expose banks-corporates’ bad loans

Mumbai, Dec 11 (TruthDive):2013

 Banks owned by the State (excluding SBI) have 25 percent of the total non-performing assets (NPAs) accounted by 50 corporations. Kingfisher Airlines and Winsome Diamond top the list.

The combined debt owed by the 50 corporate totalled Rs 40,528 crore of bank loans. Rs 1,64,461 crore is the total NPAs of public sector banks.

Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher Airlines’ debt is Rs 2,673 crore of the combined NPA list of PSU banks according to the All India Bank Employees Association.

Winsome Diamond owned by Jatin Mehta owes Rs 2,660 crore, Rs 2,211 crore from Electrotherm India, Rs 1,810 crore from Zoom Developers, Rs 1,732 crore from Sterling Biotech and S Kumars Nationwide owes Rs 1,692 crore.

Among others, Forever Precious Jewellery has to pay Rs 1,254 crore, Orchid Chemicals owes Rs 938 crore, Deccan Chronicle outstanding is Rs 700 crore and Delhi Airport Metro Express owes Rs 346 crore.

AIBEA will publish a booklet containing the names of the 30 defaulters in each bank. AIBEA says banks should publish the list of loan defaulters who owe Rs 1 crore and above and those who make a wilful default of loan a criminal offence. There should be probing into the nexus and collusion in siphoning off banks’ money. The government should amend recovery laws to recovery of bad loans, AIBEA Venkatachalam said.

Most of these defaults occurred before the financial crisis. RBI data shows that the bank’s credit administration had started weakening even before the onset of the financial crisis.

Write-offs contributed to the reduction of gross NPAs as compared to actual recoveries. AIBEA said these practices clearly will endanger as they reduce the banks’ drive for recovery efforts. The AIBEA expose would be a hit on the RBI governance of the State-owned banks.