Defaulters owe 27% to SBI alone, PNB follows

New Delhi, August 20

Country's largest lender SBI accounts for over 27 per cent of the total amount owed to public sector banks by wilful defaulters.

As many as 1,762 wilful defaulters owed Rs 25,104 crore to the State Bank of India as on March 31, putting pressure on its balance sheet.

Punjab National Bank (PNB) is the next on the list with 1,120 wilful defaulters having outstanding non-performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans of Rs 12,278 crore.

Together, these two banks account for Rs 37,382 crore (or 40 per cent) of the total outstanding loan amount (Rs 92,376 crore) payable to public sector banks by wilful defaulters.

The total outstanding loans by wilful defaulters rose to Rs 92,376 crore at the end of financial year 2016-17, from Rs 76,685 crore at the end of last fiscal 2015-16  (up 20.4 per cent). At the same time, there has been close to 10 per cent increase in the number of wilful defaulters on annual basis. It increased to 8,915 at the end of March, as against 8,167 in the previous fiscal.

Out of 8,915 cases of wilful defaults, banks have filed FIRs in 1,914 cases with outstanding loans of Rs 32,484 crore. 

During 2016-17, 27 public sector banks, including the SBI and its five associates had written off Rs 81,683 crore, the highest in the last five fiscals. The amount was 41 per cent higher than that during the previous fiscal.

Gross NPAs of public sector banks rose to Rs 6.41 lakh crore at the end of March 2017 as against Rs 5.02 lakh crore a year ago.

The RBI has allowed banks to name and shame wilful defaulters by publishing their photographs. — PTI

Damning figures

• Rs 92,376 crore is the amount due to be paid by wilful defaulters to public sector banks at the end of financial year 2016-17
• 1,762 wilful defaulters owed Rs 25,104 crore to the State Bank of India as on March 31
• Punjab National Bank is the next on the list with 1,120 wilful defaulters having bad loans of Rs 12,278 crore

Banks stare at strike on Tuesday

• Services at public sector banks may take a hit on Tuesday as all unions under the aegis of UFBU have threatened to go on strike against the government’s consolidation move
• Most banks have already informed their customers that functioning of branches and offices will be impacted, if the strike takes off
• Operations at private lenders like ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank are expected to be normal except delay in cheque clearances