Guj Firms Top Fi Defaulters List, Owe Rs 1,121.47 Crore

Companies in Gujarat are the biggest defaulters, owing Rs 1,121.47 crore to the three leading financial institutions as on March 31, 2000. This sum has practically doubled over one year from Rs 550 crore in 1998-98. Maharashtra, however, has the maximum number of defaulting companies at 113, owing Industrial Development Bank of India, ICICI and IFCI Rs 971 crore.

All the states combined Rs 6,275.81 crore of institutional funding is stuck up in the Board of Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) cases. This is a rise of 30 per cent over the preceding fiscal 1998-99 at Rs 4,836 crore.

The private sector accounted for 82.6 per cent of the total number of sick units, followed by the public sector at 10.4 per cent, and joint sector at 7 per cent. The significant rise in the number of sick companies in the private sector was up from 496 in 1998-99 to 573 in 1999-2000. The total outstanding from this sector stood at Rs 5,592.5 crore in 1999-2000, up 35 per cent from 1998-99. The number of public undertakings defaulting on institutional loans equally rose from 65 to 72, owing Rs 418.24 crore.

During 1999-2000, an additional 207 companies were referred to the BIFR against 198 sick companies in 1998-99. There was a sharp increase in the number of BIFR cases that went in for liquidation from 25 to 67 companies. The outstanding amount involved in these cases stood to the tune of Rs 262.93 crore.

At the same time with 67 companies opting for liquidation, and another 56 no longer being under BIFR, with four opting for turnaround and mergers, the number of sick companies within the portfolio of the three institutions rose to 694. The amount of loans outstanding with these institutions stood at Rs 6,275.81 crore.

Even as textiles continued to top the number of sick units with as many as 139 referred to the BIFR, the chemicals and chemical product industry turned out to be the biggest defaulters, owing funds in excess of Rs 1,332 crore. This was way above the outstanding loans given to the textile industry at Rs 722.03 crore. Ten iron and steel companies were referred to the BIFR during the year, resulting in outstanding loans by the basic metals sector increasing to Rs 999.7 crore from Rs 809.4 crore in the preceding fiscal.

The number of sick sugar companies rose from eight in 1998-99 to 11 in the following year, as amounts locked up stood to Rs 123.94 crore. This partially attributes to the rise in number of sick units in Maharashtra from 89 to 113 companies during the period under review.

The number of sick companies in Gujarat rose from 65 to 79 during the period. Even in Delhi there was a rise in the number of cases referred to the BIFR from three to nine.