Growing menace of willful defaulters

Borrower who deliberately or intentionally fail to repay their debts, even though they have the capacity to repay are termed as willful defaulters. Since past few years the number of willful defaulters has been steadily increasing and the defaulted amount has reached ₹1.96 lakh crore.

- Gopabandhu Mohapatra

According to information received under RTI, there are 2,664 high-profile borrowers, who are willful defaulters from banks. Out of this, 28 willful defaulters of public sector banks (PSBs), who have an outstanding of ₹1,000 core and above, owe ₹64,103 crore. The number of willful defaulters, who owe ₹500 crore to ₹1,000 crore is 33, and their dues are ₹22,545 crore. As many as 244 willful defaulters, in the range of ₹100 crore to ₹500 crore owe ₹53,284 crore. As many as 369 big defaulters, with an outstanding of ₹100 crore and more, owe more than 1.39 lakh crore to scheduled commercial banks and all-India financial institutes (AIFI). The number of willful defaulters who owe between ₹50 crore to ₹100 crore is 252, and together, they have an outstanding of ₹17,491 crore, while 1,438 willful defaulters owe less than ₹50 crore to banks.

The CBI has apprised that 38 persons involved in cases registered by the agency related to financial irregularities with banks, fled the country during 1 January, 2015 to 31 December, 2019.