PNB's bad-loan woes mount to over Rs 151 bn on back of Nirav Modi fraud

The public sector lender has been putting out the names of wilful defaulters and firms since June 2017. Within ten months, these defaults have grown by 28%, from Rs 118.79 bn

Press Trust of India  |  New Delhi 

Punjab National bank, PNB
Punjab National Bank

Big wilful defaulters owed Rs 151.72 billion in loans to at the end of March this year.

The liability on such defaulters rose by 1.8 per cent from Rs 149.04 bn in February.

The public sector lender has been putting out the names of wilful defaulters and firms since June 2017. Within ten months, these defaults have grown by 28 per cent, from Rs 118.79 bn.

The major wilful defaulters include -- Rs 13 billion; -- Rs 5.97 bn ; -- Rs 2.96 bn; -- Rs 1.58 bn and Rs 1.02 bn.

All these companies were provided loans by PNB as part of consortium lending.

Others in the list include Winsome Diamonds and Jewellery -- Rs 8.99 bn; Zoom Developers -- Rs 4.10 bn; Jas infrastructure and -- Rs 4.10 bn; -- Rs 2.48 bn; Nafed -- Rs 2.24 bn; -- Rs 2.66 bn and S Kumar Nationwide -- Rs 1.46 bn.

For third quarter ended December 31 of last fiscal, 2017-18, PNB's gross non-performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans stood at Rs 575.19 bn or 12.11 per cent of the gross advances.

In 2016-17, the gross NPAs were 12.53 per cent of the gross advances at Rs 553.70 bn.

Hit by the over Rs 130 bn fraud, PNB has been trying to clean up its books. Multiple agencies are investigating the case and working on bringing back the alleged and his uncle of Gitanjali Gems, who have fled the country.

First Published: Sun, May 06 2018. 11:38 IST