PNB wilful defaulters' dues fall marginally to Rs 150.75 bn at Aug-end

Outstanding dues of big wilful defaulters of Punjab National Bank reduced marginally to Rs 150.7507 billion at end-August from Rs 151.75 billion at the July end, according to the bank's data.  

According to the list of wilful defaulters who took loans of Rs 2.5 million and more, Kudos Chemie Ltd and Kingfisher Airlines were the major borrowers with outstanding amount of Rs 13.0182 billion and Rs 5.9744 billion, respectively. 

Jas Infrastructure had outstanding dues of Rs 4.1096 billion; VMC Systems Rs 2.9608 billion; MBS Jewellers Rs 2.6617 billion; Tulsi Extrusion Rs 1.754 billion; ICSA Ltd Rs 1.3476 billion; Vibha Agrotech Rs 1.25 billion; Arvind Remedies Rs 1.5816 billion; Bhawani Industries Rs 1.0666 billion; Indu Projects Ltd Rs 1.0283 billion; BBF Industries Rs 1.0099 billion and Rupana Papers Rs 1.0049 billion. 

These are all part of a consortium lending, the PNB list showed.

Among those who took loans from PNB as a sole lender included Winsome Diamonds & Jewellery Rs 8.997 billion; Zoom Developers Rs 4.1018 billion; S Kumar Nationwide Rs 1.4682 billion; Rana Lohh Udyog Rs 1.2934 billion; Reid & Taylor Rs 944 million; Mahuaa Media Rs 1.0486 billion; Walia Traders Rs 923.6 million; MVL Telecom Rs 680 million; Surya Vinayak Industries Rs 1.3396 billion and Vishal Exports Overseas Rs 983.9 million. 

The bank releases a list of borrowers who despite having the capacity do not make repayment of loans on monthly basis.

The public sector lender had posted a net loss of Rs 9.4 billion in the first quarter ended June of the current fiscal.

PNB earlier in February unearthed a scam of more than Rs 140 billion carried out by celebrity jeweller Nirav Modi and his associates.

In 2017-18, the lender had registered a net loss of Rs 122.83 billion - 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 77 billion 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 828.89 billion -- 18.26 per cent of the gross advances.