SBI reportedly writes off bad loans of Rs 7,016 cr; Cong rakes up issue in Parliament

The clean-up drive saw the bank forgoing almost Rs 1,201 crore in dues owed by Vijay Mallya's defunct Kingfisher Airlines

The State Bank of India has cleaned up non-performing assets worth Rs 7,016 crore from its books by writing off loans given to 63 wilful defaulters, Daily News & Analysis reported on Wednesday. Of the 63 accounts, 31 have been partially written off and six shown as NPAs.

The clean-up drive saw the bank forgoing almost Rs 1,201 crore in dues to Vijay Mallya’s defunct Kingfisher Airlines, which is at the top of the list of wilful defaulters. In other words, loans given to Kinfsiher Airlines will no longer be shown in the bank’s balance sheet, though the airline has outstanding dues of almost Rs 1,201 crore. Some of the other prominent defaulters who feature in the write-off list are KS Oil (Rs 596 crore), Surya Pharmaceuticals (Rs 526 crore), GET Power (Rs 400 crore) and SAI Info System (Rs 376 crore).

The Congress party immediately reacted to the article and linked it to the government's demonetisation drive. "As Modiji's blue-eyed boy Vijay Mallya gets a Rs 1,200-cr write-off, fighting black money is political hypocrisy at its worst," said Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala.

Even Congress leader Anand Sharma expressed apprehensions that the money received from people migth be used to recapitalise the banks and wipe out Rs 6 lakh crore of non-performing assets of big industrialists.

"The Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) are to the tune of Rs 6 lakh crore. Do they want to utilise the money deposited by people in banks to wipe out the NPAs (on account) of industrialists who have played fraud on the country?" party spokesman Kapil Sibal said at a briefing by the All-India Congress Committee.

He claimed that the Reserve Bank of India RBI would transfer the money to the government, which would recapitalise banks and clear their balance sheets, and the "whole thing has nothing to do with black money; it is a compromise on black money and with NPAs".

Even Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has called demonetisation the biggest scam.

"This is what we feared. The hard-earned money of people will be put into banks to write off the loans of crorepatis. They have already started doing it," he said on Twitter."

READ OUR FULL COVERAGE OF THE MODI GOVT'S DEMONETISATION MOVE

Cornered Vijay Mallya offers Rs 1590 cr as intent to pay debt

Vijay Mallya, the Indian liquor baron battling creditors seeking to recover dues, offered to deposit Rs 1,590 crore ($240 million) with India's top court to establish his intent to settle with lenders who had rejected an earlier payment proposal.

Lawyers representing the founder of the collapsed Kingfisher Airlines Ltd, who the government says left the country earlier this year, filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court on Thursday in response to a directive to declare all his assets. The debt owed by the failed carrier is at the centre of India's drive to crack down on defaulters and clean up the balance sheets of its banks weighed down by soured loans.

Mallya also told the court that overseas assets are not considered while granting loans, and sought permission to file information of his assets in a sealed cover on June 26.

He also said banks had no right to any of this information as they were not involved in overseas assets recast. He further added that he can make an additional payment of Rs 1,398 crore withheld by the Karnataka High Court.

Reiterating his earlier position, Mallya told the court he isn't a "wilful defaulter" and the airline was "genuine commercial failure."

He was making all efforts to work out a settlement "in all sincerity" by offering to pay "to the extent possible and feasible" until the government suspended his passport and a court in Mumbai issued a non-bailable warrant against him, he said in the filing.

India's foreign ministry, acting on an application by the Enforcement Directorate, said April 15 that Mallya had a week to respond to why his diplomatic passport shouldn't be impounded or revoked, after suspending it for four weeks. The government says Mallya and Kingfisher owed as much as 90.9 billion rupees ($1.37 billion) as of November 30.

Meanwhile, armed with a non-bailable arrest warrant against him, the Enforcement Directorate has approached the External Affairs Ministry seeking initiation of deportation proceedings against Mallya in connection with its money laundering probe against him in the Rs 900 crore IDBI alleged loan fraud case.

The agency has written to the ministry of external affairs and will also soon write to the Central Bureau of Investigation to get an Interpol Red Corner Notice issued against Mallya to get him arrested, based on the warrant issued by a Mumbai court.

Last week, MEA had suspended Mallya's diplomatic passport and has sought a reply from him as to why his passport should not be revoked.

Sources said once the deportation proceedings are initiated, MEA will seek assistance of its counterparts in the United Kingdom to interdict Mallya and fly him back to India.

"The grounds for deportation are primarily two. A non-bailable warrant issued by the Mumbai court and suspension of the passport of the businessman," they said.

Mallya is understood to be in the UK after he left India on March 2.

A Hyderabad court had on Wednesday convicted Mallya in a cheque-bouncing case filed against him by GMR Hyderabad International Airport.

With the latest request for deportation, the ED has virtually deployed all legal measures in place to bring back Vijay Mallya to India and make him join investigations "in person", which the agency had stated in a Mumbai court was essential to take the probe forward in the case.

The 60-year-old industrialist has skipped three summons issued by ED in this regard in the past. He had also sought time till May to depose before agency investigators.

ED has registered a money laundering case against Mallya and others based on an FIR registered last year by the CBI.

The agency is not only investigating the financial structure of the now defunct Kingfisher Airlines but also looking into any payment of kickbacks to secure loans from IDBI and probing laundering of funds to overseas destinations by the group.

The agency had alleged that Mallya had siphoned off Rs 430 crore of the IDBI loan and used this money to acquire properties abroad, a charge denied by Kingfisher.

CBI names 5 IDBI Bank executives in Rs 950 cr loan misuse case by Mallya

Five serving and former executives of the IDBI Bank, mentioned in a probe report by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will be questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) over a Rs 950-crore loan sanctioned to Kingfisher Airlines in 2009.

Yogesh Agarwal, the then chairman and managing director of IDBI Bank, and four other executives who were members of the credit committee, B K Batra, O V Bundellu, R Bansal and S K V Srinivasan, have been named by the CBI.

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Mallya received part of Diageo funds in offshore accounts

Vijay Mallya, chairman of UB group, received part of the proceeds from the sale of shares in United Spirits Ltd (USL), including the sale of South African breweries from Diageo in his offshore accounts, banking sources said.

The USL sale proceeds were not used to repay loans to Indian banks in 2012 which lent Rs 7,200 crore to Mallya-owned Kingfisher Airlines.

Diageo had spent nearly Rs 11,000 crore for acquisition of United Spirits in November 2012. Besides, it spent another $58 million (approx Rs 394 crore) in two tranches for the acquisition of South African breweries from Mallya. Read More

Diageo to pay USL chairman Vijay Mallya Rs 500 cr to walk away

Vijay Mallya, who built United Spirits as India’s largest liquor company, has exited the company after he sewed a deal with its majority owner Diageo that absolves him from claims over fund diversion from the liquor firm to other UB group firms, including Kingfisher Airlines.

Read Full Article Over Here: Business Standard News

PNB declares 900 firms as wilful defaulters; owe Rs 11,000 cr

Public sector lender Punjab National Bank (PNB) has declared a list of 904 wilful defaulters, including Winsome Diamonds & Jewellery and Zoom Developers, that owe close to Rs 11,000 crore to the lender.

Delhi-based bank recently declared defunct Kingfisher Airlines and its guarantors United Breweries Holdings and United Spirits chairman Vijay Mallya as wilful defaulters. Kingfisher Airlines owes Rs 1,500 crore to PNB.