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As banks' outstanding dues shot up to a whopping Rs 8.58 lakh crore, Maharashtra and Delhi top the list of defaulters, as per the latest official data of TransUnion CIBIL Ltd.


The figures show that as on March 31, 2022, there were 30,359 records of borrowers with defaults of Rs one crore and above, with recovery suits filed against them by various banks, totalling to outstanding of Rs 858,396.32 crore.

This amount has more than tripled since March 31, 2017 -- from 17,236 accounts facing lawsuits to recover Rs 258,266.97 crore (Rs 2.58 lakh crore) covering 32 states, compared with 2022, as per the CIBIL data.

With a lion's share of defaulters, 12 public sector banks alone account for more than 20,000 cases filed to recover Rs 5.90 lakh crore, or half the total outstanding (Rs 8.58 lakh crore).

State Bank Of India and its associate banks have to recover Rs 1.60 lakh crore, Punjab National Bank (Rs 1,08,23,992 crore), IDBI Bank Ltd (63,40,964) crore, Bank Of Baroda (Rs 54,54,790 crore), Union Bank of India (Rs 53,39,571 crore), UCO Bank (Rs 31,27,521 crore), Indian Overseas Bank (Rs 31,10,724 crore), Canara Bank (Rs 30,39,338 crore), Bank Of India (Rs 28,15,693 crore), Bank Of Maharashtra (Rs 15,93,916 crore), Central Bank Of India (Rs 10,29,409 crore), and Punjab & Sind Bank (Rs 3,66,753 crore) -- totalling to Rs 5.90 lakh crore.

The private sector banks have filed 6,897 cases to get back Rs 1.32 lakh crore from defaulters of Rs one crore and above, and foreign banks are pursuing 572 borrowers to recover Rs 13,669 crore, and 20 cooperative banks have filed 442 suits to get back Rs 3,599 crore from the defaulters.

Among the states, Maharashtra tops with 7,954 defaulters owing Rs 3.82 lakh crore (2022) compared with 4,726 cases in 2017 with unpaid dues of Rs 81,027 crore and Delhi with 2,862 cases to wrest back Rs 1.14 lakh crore (2022), as compared to 1,507 cases to recover Rs 28,817 crore in 2017.

In the third position is Telangana with 1,319 cases to get back Rs 59,083 crore (2022), compared with West Bengal's 1,795 suits to recover Rs 26,938 crore in 2017.

Expressing serious concerns over the growing defaults, mostly by corporates, despite claims to the contrary by the government, United Forum of Bank Unions Convenor Devidas Tuljapurkar, demanded to know what and where exactly things are going wrong.

"The Centre must publish a White Paper on the banks' non-performing assets, the write-offs as it involves public monies... There should be a mechanism developed to fix the accountability for NPAs while removing the corporate defaulters from the banking system," Tuljapurkar told IANS.

He rues that despite the Debt Recovery Tribunals (DRTs), Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code (IBC), Securitisation & Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Securities Interest Act (SARFAESI), banks are compelled to make haircuts, one-time settlements or write-offs of the peoples' money and depriving funds for public welfare.

Several financial institutions like LIC, SIDBI, EXIM Bank, GIC, IFCI, SUUTI, UTI have 467 such accounts with total outstanding of around Rs 1.18 lakh crore, as per the CIBIL list.

The major private sector banks with huge amounts to be recovered are Axis Bank Ltd., ICICI Bank Ltd., Yes Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Indusind Bank Ltd., The Federal Bank Ltd., The South Indian Bank Ltd., HDFC Bank Ltd., The Jammu & Kashmir Bank Ltd., Tamilnad Mercantile Bank Ltd..