RBI wrote off Rs 68,600-cr loans of wilful defaulters, including Choksi, Kingfisher Airlines, Baba Ramdev and Balkrishna’s group company Ruchi Soya’s Rs 2,212 cr also written off. top 50 willful defaulters are spread across various sectors of the economy including IT, infrastructure, power, gold-diamond jewellery, pharma, etc.
A known RTI activist Saket Gokhale had filed an RTI query with the RBI seeking details of the 50 top wilful defaulters and their current loan status till February 16.
Gokhale said he had filed the RTI because Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur had refused to reply to this starred question asked in the Parliament by Congress MP Rahul Gandhi in the last Budget Session on February 16.
Even as the government didn’t respond to the query, the RBI’s Central Public Information Officer Abhay Kumar responded on Saturday (April 24), with several startling revelations in the ”diamond-studded list’, said Gokhale.
The RBI said Rs 68,607 crore comprises outstanding and the amounts were technically/prudentially written off till September 30, 2019.
Here is the list of top defaulters:
top 50 willful defaulters are spread across various sectors of the economy including IT, infrastructure, power, gold-diamond jewellery, pharma, etc.
- On top of the list are Mehul Choksi’s scam-hit company,, Gitanjali Gems Limited, which owed R 5,492 crore, and other group companies, Gili India Ltd and Nakshatra Brands Ltd, which had taken loans of Rs 1,447 crore and Rs 1,109 crore, respectively. Mehul Choksi is currently a citizen of Antigua & Barbados Isles.
- The second most on the list is REI Agro Ltd. directors Sandip Jhujhunwala and Sanjay Jhunjhunwala, with an amount of Rs 4,314 crores.
- The next on the list is Jatin Mehta’s Winsome Diamonds and Jewellery owing Rs 4,076 crore
- Next is Kanpur-based writing instruments giant, Rotomac Global Pvt. Ltd., part of the famed Kothari group, which owed Rs 2,850 crore.
- Other renowned people in this Rs 2,000-crore category include Kudos Chemie, Punjab (Rs.2,326 crore). Baba Ramdev and Balkrishna”s group company Ruchi Soya Industries Ltd., Indore (Rs.2,212 crore), and Zoom Developers Pvt. Ltd., Gwalior (Rs.2,012 crore).
- Othe 18 companies come under the Rs 1K-crore segment with some prominent names like Harish R. Mehta’s Ahmedabad-based Forever Precious Jewellery and Diamonds Pvt. Ltd. (Rs.,1962 crore), and absconder liquor baron Vijay Mallya”s defunct Kingfisher Airlines Ltd. (Rs 1,943 crore).
- The other 25 companies fall in the sub-1k-crore category with outstandings ranging from Rs 605 crore to Rs 984 crore, either individually or as group companies.
