Arun Jaitley tells parliament: 9,130 wilful defaulters owe Rs 91,155 crore to banks

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday told the parliament that there are a total of 9,130 wilful defaulters as on December 31, 2016, who collectively owe public sector banks (PSBs) Rs 91,155 crore. That's Rs 9.9 crore for each defaulter.

Jaitely was replying to a Lok Sabha question over PSBs willful defaulter case involving both individuals and companies. 

Jaitley said that from out of the all the defaulters, suits against 8,364 have been filed with loan amounting to Rs 85,258 crore. FIRs on 2,024 defaulters with loan of Rs 29,557 crore  have been initiated, the parliament was told. 

During the period, SARFAESI Act has been initiated on 6207 defaulters making loan amount up to Rs 72,421 crore, he further said. 

In November 2016, Minister of State for Finance Santosh Kumar Gangwar told Lok Sabha that PSBs have reported 16% rise in number of wilful defaulters, at 8,167 who collectively owe banks Rs 76,685 crore as on March 2016.