As many as 1,787 big wilful defaulters owed outstanding loans of ₹37,020.27 crore at the end of first quarter of 2020-21, according to the list of wilful defaulters with outstanding of ₹25 lakh and above uploaded on the Punjab National Bank (PNB) website. All these companies were provided loans by PNB as part of consortium lending.
Mehul Choksi-promoted Gitanjali Gems Ltd leads the list with an outstanding loan of ₹5,064.84 crore. Gili India and Nakshatra Brands, which were also part of the Gitanjali Group, owed ₹1,447 crore and ₹1,109 crore each to the country’s second largest state-owned lender.
Jatin Mehta’s Winsome Diamond & Jewellery Ltd owed ₹1,036.85 crore while ABG Shipyard Ltd had outstanding loan ₹1,193.37 crore at the end of June 30, 2020, the list showed.
Chandigarh-based chemical manufacturer Kudos Chemie Ltd with an outstanding loan of ₹1,418 crore is among wilful defaulters who owed more than ₹1,000 crore to the bank.
Among others, Vijay Mallya-promoted Kingfisher Airlines has outstanding loan of ₹522.48 crore, Zoom Developers ₹702 crore; Jas Infrastructure and Power Ltd ₹453.96 crore, while Sterling Global Oil Resources Limited has ₹755 crore.
The bank has a committee consisting of the managing director and two board members for the review of identification of wilful defaulters and non-cooperative borrowers classification.
For the quarter ended March 2020, the gross non-performing assets (NPAs) of the bank declined to 14.21% of gross advances as against 15.50% in March 2019. Net NPAs or bad loans also came down to 5.78% as against 6.56% in the year-ago period.
