For over ten years, the RBI has denied RTI applicants this information arguing that it would be against the economic interests of the country.
Four
years after the Supreme Court first directed the Reserve
Bank of India (RBI) to disclose a list of India’s wilful
defaulters, the central bank has finally complied.
In response to a Right to Information (RTI) application filed by The Wire in May 2019, the RBI has released a list of 30 major wilful defaulters.
In response to a Right to Information (RTI) application filed by The Wire in May 2019, the RBI has released a list of 30 major wilful defaulters.
For
over ten years, the RBI has denied RTI applicants this information
arguing that it would be against the economic interests of the
country and its ‘fiduciary relationship’ with the banks disallows
it from doing so.
While
the Central bank has been reluctant to release this data, individual
banks and lenders have always generated information on wilful
defaulters in the form of suits filed for recovery of their dues.
This data has, over the years, been collated by TransUnion Cibil.
According
to the Central bank’s response though, three companies belonging to
fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi are amongst the 30 major wilful
defaulters that the Indian banking system is currently grappling
with.
Total
funded advances outstanding to these 30 companies – along with the
amount the banks have written off so far – adds up to over Rs
50,000 crore.
To
put this in perspective, as of December 2018, over 11,000 companies
had willfully defaulted on amounts worth over Rs 1.61 lakh crore,
according to TransUnion Cibil data.
The
wilful defaulter data released by the RBI comes from a large
centralised banking system database called ‘CRILC’ – the
Central Repository of Information on Large Credits. This is a pool of
data on the credit information of all borrowers who have an exposure
of Rs 5 crore and above. CRILC has in the last three years been
particularly useful as a data-sharing mechanism between banks as
well, to identify errant borrowers and ensure they don’t try to
cheat the system.
From
February 2019, banks have had the option in CRILC to categorise
whether a borrower is a wilful defaulter or not.
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