Liabilities of big wilful defaulters of scam-hit Punjab National Bank (PNB) fell by 1.8 per cent to Rs 15,175 crore by July-end over the previous month, according the state-run’s bank data. Big wilful defaulters are those who took loans of over Rs 25 lakh from the bank.
Such borrowers had an outstanding of Rs 15,355 crore at end of June this year.
Among major defaulters who took loans solely from PNB included Winsome Diamonds & Jewellery Rs 899.70 crore; Forever Precious Jewellery & Diamonds Ltd Rs 747.97 crore; Zoon Developers Rs 410.18 crore; Shree Sidhbali Ispat Rs 165.98 crore; Ramsarup Nirmaan Wires Rs 148.10 crore; S Kumar Nationwide Rs 146.82 crore. Among others were Ramsarup Industrial Corporation Rs 133.20 crore; Ramsarup Lohh Udyog Rs 129.34 crore; Mahuaa Media Rs 104.86 crore; KG Corporation Rs 98.92 crore and Vishal Exports Overseas Rs 98.39 crore.
Those who borrowed money through a consortium lending from several banks were Kudos Chemie Rs 1,301.82 crore, Kingfisher Airlines Rs 597.44 crore; Jas Infrastructure and Power Ltd Rs 410.96 crore; VMC Systems Ltd Rs 296.08 crore; MBS Jewellers Rs 266.17 crore; Arvind Remedies Ltd Rs 158.16 crore; ICSA (India) Ltd Rs 134.76 crore.
Of the others included: Bhawani Industries Rs 106.66 crore; Tulsi Extrusion Rs 175.40 crore; Vibha Agrotech Rs 125 crore; Indu Projects Rs 102.83 crore; BBF Industries Rs 101 crore and Rupana Paper Mills Rs 100.49 crore.
Punjab National Bank which was hit by a scam of more than Rs 14,000 crore unearthed earlier in February allegedly carried out by jeweller Nirav Modi and his associates, posted a net loss of Rs 940 crore in the first quarter ended June of the current fiscal. In 2017-18, the lender had registered a net loss of Rs 12,283 crore - the highest ever by any bank in India so far, due to rising bad loans and parking huge sum to cover for losses due to the scam.
The bank made a recovery from bad loans to the tune of Rs 7,700 crore in the first quarter ended June, 2018-19 as a result of its turnaround strategy it adopted last year. The bank’s gross NPAs or bad loans as on June end stood at Rs 82,889 crore -- 18.26 per cent of the gross advances.