AIBEA names Kingfisher Airlines, Winsome Diamonds among willful defaulters

In all 5,610 accounts blocked over Rs 58,000 crore of banks, says association

Kingfisher Airlines, Winsome Diamonds and Jewellery Ltd and Zoom Developers are some of the names among a list of 5,610 wilful defaulters that were made public on Wednesday by the All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA).

Releasing the list of wilful defaulters, AIBEA said that 5,610 accounts collectively blocked over Rs 58,000 crore of public and private sector banks as on March 2016.

Out of 5,610 banks accounts, around 4,738 accounts are held by nationalised banks including State Bank of India (SBI) and its associate banks. Defaulted loan amount of these accounts was worth Rs 47,735 crore. Private sector banks, on the other hand, saw 792 accounts with outstanding loan of Rs 10,250 crore.

"This is public money and it is our responsibility to inform people, who have stolen their money.That is why we have announced names of defaulters who willfully do not wish to pay back," said Janak Rawal, joint secretary of AIBEA and general secretary of Maha Gujarat Bank Employees' Association.

The union said the total quantum of bad loans of the government owned banks stand at Rs 539,995 crore as on March 31, 2016. Out of this, about Rs 70,000 crore have been blocked by wilful defaulters.

Top defaulters of public sector banks and financial institutions included Winsome Diamonds and Jewellery Ltd with a default amount of over Rs 2,266 crore, Forever Precious jewellery and Diamonds (Rs 1,001 crore), Kingfisher Airlines Ltd (Rs 1,201 crore), Zoom Developers (Rs 1710 crore), Beta Nepthol (Rs 958 crore), Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd (Rs 884 crore) and S Kumars Nationwide Limited (Rs 598 crore).

Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank and IndusInd Bank were among the top private sector banks with defaults worth Rs 5,442 crore, Rs 993 crore and Rs 899 crore, respectively. Calling for government action, C H Venkatchalam, general secretary of AIBEA said: "No serious action is being taken by the government and RBI to recover these huge bad loans. On the other hand, concessions are being given to them. Government must take criminal action against wilful defaulters."

The association is demanding criminal action against the wilful defaulters even as it plans to raise the issue again during the one day strike on July 29.

"We have two demands. One is that the government must take criminal action against wilful defaulters and second that they should not participate in any election," said Rawal.