There are as many as 1,594 wilful defaulters in the banking sector if accounts of larger than Rs 25 lakh (Rs 2.5 million)and ones against which banks have filed suits are taken into account. The accounts have turned non-performing.
State Bank of India has emerged the bank with the largest number of wilful defaults and has categorised 271 accounts as defaulters. SIRIS Ltd emerging as the largest wilful default at Rs 79.15 crore (Rs 791.5 million) followed by Gilt Pack Ltd at Rs 43.28 crore (Rs 432.8 million).
These two accounts have also emerged the largest wilful default accounts in the banking sector.
While most of the wilful default accounts against which the bank has filed suits ranged from Rs 25 lakh to around Rs 10 crore (Rs 100 million), there were only 15 accounts above Rs 10 crore (Rs 100 million) that were classified wilful as on March 2002.
Other large wilful defaults were from companies like Shri Ishar Alloy Steels at Rs 25.11 crore (Rs 251.1 million) and Prime Solvent Extraction at Rs 19.67 crore (Rs 196.7 million).
Union Bank of India on the other hand has marked 85 of its non-performing accounts as wilful defaults where the highest NPA account was Rs 23.15 crore (Rs 231.5 million) from R D Swamy and Alpic Finance at Rs 15.07 crore (Rs 150.7 million).
IndusInd Bank had 73 cases of wilful default. The single largest account was Shakti Aquacultue Farms Ltd at Rs 20.81 crore (Rs 208.1 million) followed by Patheja Forgings & Auto Parts Manufacturers Ltd at Rs 16.74 crore (Rs 167.4 million).
Indian Overseas Bank on the other hand has categorised 67 such accounts with defaults ranging between Rs 25 lakh and Rs 5 crore (Rs 50 million).
Canara Bank has categorised 64 accounts as wilful defaults while Allahabad bank has marked 12 accounts as wilful defaults.
Nedangudi Bank also has 57 cases of wilful default all of which will be added to PNBs accounts -- this entire 57 accounts will be written off as the bank is merging with another public sector bank and its entire bad assets will be written off.
Oriental Bank of Commerce has 54 such accounts Modern Woolens at Rs 10.55 crore (Rs 105.5 million) and Makhan Lal Rak Kumar Cotton Ltd at Rs 8.01 crore (Rs 80.1 million).
The lowest number of wilful defaults were from Punjab and Sind Bank at four where the size of the accounts ranged from Rs 28 lakh (Rs 2.8 million) to Rs 1.6 crore (Rs 16 million).
The number of wilful defaults in financial institutions are, however, not very large. The foreign banks has also not recorded many such defaults.
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