India's wilful loan defaulters remain high, a decade after RBI’s asset quality review

Reserve Bank of India

• Wilful defaulters hit 18,000 with Rs 3.83 lakh crore dues in FY25
• Top defaulters include ABG Shipyard and Gitanjali Gems
• Default amounts surged after COVID-19, hitting decade highs

Did our AI summary help?

The 2015 Asset Quality Review (AQR) initiated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was considered a landmark move to assess the extent of bad loans in the country and weed out hidden stress in Indian banks. Although it forced banks to address non-performing assets at that time, a decade later, however, so-called wilful defaults by entities continue to be high.

The number of wilful defaulters rose to 18,000 borrowers with outstanding dues of about Rs 3.83 lakh crore as of March 2025. In comparison, in FY16, the number of defaulters stood at 9,070 with outstanding debt of Rs 89,889 crore.

This is according to recent Union government data, which was compiled by TransUnion CIBIL Ltd. This latest data shows that the number of defaulters has risen four times in the last decade, with a multi-fold increase in the default amount in the same time period.

According to a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha on March 16, the amount owed by the 10 defaulters comes to a little more than Rs 40,000 crore, which occupies at least 10 percent of the total default amount.

In FY25, ABG Shipyard was the top defaulter with debt worth Rs 6,695 crore, followed by Gitanjali Gems, which has an outstanding amount of Rs 6,236 crore, according to the data available.

The number of defaulters had peaked in FY24 at 18,876, which reduced slightly to 18,318 in FY25. Even so, the Rs 3.83 lakh crore owed by all the entities in FY25 was the highest in the last decade, indicating that even as there have been fewer additions, the quantum of debt owed has increased.

A wilful defaulter is someone who can repay but deliberately defaults. This list, as compiled by TransUnion CIBIL, takes into consideration defaulters who have a debt of Rs 25 lakh and above.

The rise in the number of wilful defaulters has been sharp in the last 6 fiscal years. That said, there was also a quick spurt in the quantum of default immediately after the COVID-19 pandemic. The quantum of default during this period jumped from Rs 2.18 lakh crore in FY20 to Rs 3.60 lakh crore in FY23.

Among the top 10 defaulters, some of the names that have found their place in the list across the years include Gitanjali Gems, Bhushan Power and Steel, ABG Shipyard, Zoom Developers, among others. Interestingly, Gitanjali has appeared on this list for nearly 5 years in a row, while ABG Shipyard has been on the list since fiscal year 2018.

Chemical company Beta Napthol has been on the list for the last 4 years, while Bhushan Power and Steel has appeared on the list for 3 consecutive years now.

Moreover, defaulters who feature more than once in the list have seen the quantum of default going up over the years. For example, Gitanjali, which made its debut on the list in FY20, had an outstanding debt of about Rs 5,000 crore. In FY25, the debt rose to Rs 6,236 crore.

In the case of ABG Shipyard, the outstanding debt was Rs 1,874 crore in FY18 when it was first featured in the list. Now, it has a default amounting to  Rs 6,695 crore in FY25, a nearly 5X surge.