PNB says 904 wilful defaulters owe it Rs 10,869 crore

The list, however, names a lot of small companies and individuals (government-owned NAFED is also on the list, surprisingly) but large borrowers are conspicuous by their absence. 

Sources said that large borrowers did not find a mention on the list as most big company accounts have been declared as non-performing asset (NPA) recently -- after the Reserve Bank of India cracked down on banks with its asset quality review.

Winsome Diamonds, Forever Precious, Zoom Developers, VMC Systems and MBS Jewellers are some of the large defaulters on the PNB list -- the top 10 borrowers owe PNB about Rs 3,554 crore. (The complete list can be accessed here.)However, former PNB Chairman and ex RBI Deputy Governor KC Chakrabarty said banks should go a step further and publicly name all defaulters and not just wilful defaulters.He was also critical of the move to categorize defaulters as wilful and otherwise, saying that such a pronouncement was prone to being challenged by the borrower in question -- and added that any resulting legal scrutiny could result in hold-up of recovery proceedings.Chakrabarty was also hopeful that the Budget would introduce steps that could aid banks' recovery processes.However, former SBI Chairman Pratip Chaudhari said the distinction between wilful and non-wilful defaulters was important -- as some companies can default on their payments due to genuine, and sometimes temporary, reasons such as a downturn in the business cycle.He also said that the RBI's wilful defaulter mechanism was strong -- and said banks give defaulters a window for explanation before they are tagged as wilful defaulters, and said such decisions are taken at the highest level of banks.