Top 10 corporate groups owe Rs 5.73 lakh cr to lenders

Govt has approved establishment of six new Debt Recovery Tribunals to speed up the recovery of bad loans

Top 10 corporate groups in the country owed Rs 5.73 crore to state-owned banks and financial institutions at the end of March this year, government said today.

The Reserve Bank of India collects credit information from banks under the CRILC reporting system for borrowers with the credit exposure greater than Rs 5 crore.

"RBI had informed that gross outstanding credit for top ten corporate groups is Rs 5,73,682 crore as on March 2016," Minister of State for Finance Santosh Kumar Gangwar said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

RBI is prohibited from disclosing credit information except under certain conditions, he added.

The minister was asked whether it was a fact that top 10 corporate houses owe a huge amount of money to the public sector banks and financial institutions.

Gangwar further said that government has taken specific measures to address various issues facing sectors such as infrastructure, steel and textiles where incidence of non-performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans is high.

The government has also approved establishment of six new Debt Recovery Tribunals to speed up the recovery of bad loans to the banking sector.

"The government has recently issued advisory to banks to take action against guarantors in event of default by borrower ...Since in the event of default, the liability of the guarantor is co-extensive with the borrower," Gangwar said.

In reply to another question, he said public sector banks wrote off (including compromise) Rs 59,547 crore during 2015- 16 while their private sector counterparts wrote off Rs 12,017 crore. Foreign banks too wrote off Rs 1,057 crore.

"RBI has informed that write-off details for leading account holders are not available with them," the minister added.