As many as 369 big defaulters, with an outstanding of Rs100 crore and more, owe more than Rs1.39 lakh crore to scheduled commercial banks and all India financial institutes (AIFI). Gitanjali Gems Ltd, owned by fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi, remains the top wilful defaulter with an outstanding of Rs8,065 crore as of 31 March 2023, reveals a reply received under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
While public sector banks (PSBs) continue to refuse to share names of big defaulters citing confidentiality of customer data , information shared by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), reveals that just 312 big defaulters owe more than 76% or Rs1,41,583.50 crore of the total bad loans.