Punjab National Bank admits loan defaults of over Rs 25,000 crore

The Punjab National Bank has admitted to 1,142 defaulters across the country who have defaulted to the tune of Rs 25,090.3 crore. The bank has initiated recovery proceedings by filing suits against 1,108 defaulters out of them. The amount they are looking to recover from these cases is Rs 23,879.8 crore.

The rest 34 owe the bank Rs 1,210.5 crore. However, no suits have been filed against them so far. Some of these are several years old and recoveries are still pending.

The Reserve Bank of India has been informed of the status of all the defaulter accounts, as mentioned in a report in IANS.

The defaulter list includes accounts owing Rs 25 lakh or above to PNB through all its branches across the states. The highest number of defaulter accounts has been tracked from Maharashtra, Punjab, Delhi, Chandigarh, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

Additionally, some companies that availed some of these loans are shown as registered abroad, while some registered in India have taken loans from PNB's overseas branches.

The list goes beyond Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi who scammed the bank out of Rs 14,000 crore. Kingfisher boss Vijay Mallya also features in the list. He owes Rs 597.4 crore to the bank on the defunct airline's account.  Other defaulters include Kudos Chemie Ltd., Chandigarh for Rs 1,301.8 crore, Winsome Diamonds & Jewellery Ltd for Rs 899.7 crore, Jas Infrastructure & Power Ltd., Kolkata for Rs 410.9 crore, Zoom Developers Pvt. Ltd. Mumbai/Indore Rs 410.1 crore.

The All India Bank Employees Association General Secretary CH Venkatachalam said, "It is not confined to one bank and all banks have such bad loan accounts. A bulk of defaulters is corporates or big companies and a forensic audit of all should be carried out. Why can't the bank file criminal cases against the big-time wilful defaulters instead of merely civil suits which can drag on for years?"

Also read: PNB Scam: UK High Court denies bail to Nirav Modi fearing obstruction of justice

Also read: Raghuram Rajan top contender in race to lead 325-year-old Bank of England