The top 50 wilful defaulters in India owed banks Rs 92,570 crore as of March 2022, with Gitanjali Gems, founded by now-fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi, heading the list.

Gitanjali Gems defaulted on loans worth Rs 7,848 crore, minister of state for finance Bhagwat Karad told the Lok Sabha on Monday.

The other big wilful defaulters included Era Infra Engineering (Rs 5,879 crore), Rei Agro (Rs 4,803 crore), 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 (Rs 2,893 crore), Coastal Projects (Rs 2,311 crore) and Zoom Developers (Rs 2,147 crore).

Karad said authorities have initiated a raft of measures to “deter defaulters, to take effective action against them and to recover the default amount from them, including recovery from written off loans”. 

Wilful defaulters are classified as those borrowers who have the ability to repay the loans but are unwilling to do so.

According to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), wilful defaulters don’t get fresh loans and are not allowed to set up new ventures for five years. Wilful defaulters and companies that have them on their boards are barred from accessing capital markets to raise money. 

The government has brought in a law to attach assets of fugitive wilful defaulters who flee India to escape the reach of law. The defaulters include names like Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and Vijay Mallya.

In a written reply to another question, Karad said banks have written off loans worth Rs 10.1 trillion in the last five years.

The State Bank of India (SBI) has written off bad loans worth Rs 19,666 crore in 2021-22. Union Bank of India follows with Rs 19,484 crore, Punjab National Bank with Rs 18,312 crore, Bank of Baroda with Rs 17,967 crore, Bank of India with Rs 10,443 crore, ICICI Bank with Rs 10,148 crore, HDFC Bank with Rs 9,405 crore, Axis Bank with Rs 9,126 crore, Indian Bank with Rs 8,347 crore and Canara Bank with Rs 8,210 crore.

The public sector banks have recovered an aggregate amount of Rs 4.8 trillion, including a recovery of Rs 1.03 trillion from written-off loans during the last five financial years, Karad said.

Write-offs have helped banks reduce their non-performing asset (NPA) levels in their books. The gross NPA ratio of banks dropped to a six-year low of 5.9% in March 2022 and the net NPA ratio fell to 1.7%.