Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Karad on December 20 listed the names of fugitive economic offenders (FEOs) in India and the total loan amount they owe in Rajya Sabha.
"The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has informed that since 2014, the fugitive economic offenders, viz. Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi, Nitin Jayantilal Sandesara, Chetan Kumar Jayantilal Sandesara, Dipti Chetan Sandesara, and Hitesh Kumar Narendrabhai Patel did not pay their loan," the minister said.
These FEOs owe a combined amount of Rs 37,185.83 crore in loans to Indian banks.
In addition, the ED's action led to the seizure of assets worth Rs 33,862.20 crore, of which Rs 15,113.02 crore had been returned to the public sector banks. The minister also said that the banks sold the assets that the ED had handed over to them and earned a profit of Rs 7,975.27 crore.
On the total number of wilful defaulters reported by public and private sector banks, he said that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) informed that the number of wilful defaulters having outstanding loans of Rs 25 lakh and above in public sector banks was 8,045 as on June 30, 2017 and 12,439 as on June 30, 2022 whereas, in private sector banks it was 1,616 as on June 30, 2017 and 2,447 as on June 30 this year.
Furthermore, the ED reported that 515 fraud cases, including cases involving willful defaulters, have been documented since May 1, 2017, in accordance with the PMLA's (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) 2002 regulations. And till December 15, 2022, the directorate had filed 39 prosecution complaints (PCs) in these cases and had attached assets amounting to Rs 44,992 crore approximately.
"Banks themselves write off NPAs as part of their regular exercise to clean up their balance sheet, avail tax benefit and optimise capital, in accordance with RBI guidelines and policy approved by their boards," the minister said.
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