Mumbai, April 27: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has admitted to writing off a staggering amount of Rs 68,607-crores due from 50 Top Wilful Defaulters, including absconding diamantaire Mehul Choksi, according to a reply under RTI.
Prominent RTI activist Saket Gokhale had filed an RTI query seeking details of the 50 Top Wilful Defaulters and their current loans status till February 16.
“I filed this RTI because Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur, but they had refused to reply to this starred question asked in parliament by Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, in the last budget session, on Feb 16, 2020,” Gokhale told IANS.
Disclosing what the government didn”t, the RBI”s Central Public Information Officer Abhay Kumar provided the replies on Saturday (April 24), with several startling revelations in the ”diamond-studded list”, said Gokhale.
The RBI said that this amount (Rs 68,607-crore) comprising outstanding and the amounts technically/prudentially Written Off, till September 30, 2019.
“The apex bank also declined to provide the relevant information on overseas borrowers citing a Supreme Court judgement of December 16, 2015,” Gokhale told IANS.
Topping the list is Choksi”s scam-hit company, Gitanjali Gems Limited which owed Rs.5,492 crore, besides other group companies, Gili India Ltd. and Nakshatra Brands Ltd. which had taken loans of Rs 1,447 crore and Rs 1,109 crore, respectively.
Choksi is currently a citizen of Antigua & Barbados Isles, while his nephew and another absconder diamond trader Nirav Modi is in London.
The second in the list is REI Agro Ltd., with an amount of Rs 4,314 crores, and its directors Sandip Jhujhunwala and Sanjay Jhunjhunwala who are already under the scanner of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) since over a year.
The next on the list in the Rs 4,000-crore bracket is absconding diamantaire Jatin Mehta”s Winsome Diamonds & Jewellery owing Rs 4,076 crore and which is being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation for various bank frands.
In the Rs 2,000-crore category, there is the Kanpur-based writing instruments giant, Rotomac Global Pvt. Ltd., part of the famed Kothari group, which owed Rs 2,850 crore.
The others in this category include: Kudos Chemie, Punjab (Rs.2,326 crore), Baba Ramdev and Balkrishna”s group company Ruchi Soya Industries Ltd., Indore (Rs.2,212 crore), and Zoom Developers Pvt. Ltd., Gwalior (Rs.2,012 crore).
There are 18 companies in the Rs.1K-segment with some prominent names like Harish R. Mehta”s Ahmedabad-based Forever Precious Jewellery & Diamonds Pvt. Ltd. (Rs.,1962 crore), and absconder liquor baron Vijay Mallya”s defunct Kingfisher Airlines Ltd. (Rs 1,943 crore).
Another 25 companies fall in the sub-1K-crore category with outstandings ranging from Rs 605 crore to Rs 984 crore, either individually or as group companies.
Six among the 50 Top Wilful Defaulters are connected with the glittering diamond and/or gold jewellery industries.
“A majority of them have defaulted prominent nationalist banks over the past several years and many of them are either absconding or facing action by various probe agencies and some are under litigation,” Gokhale said.
No industry is sacrosanct as the top 50 willful defaulters are spread across various sectors of the economy including IT, infrastructure, power, gold-diamond jewellery, pharma, etc.
–IANS
Many in the West express genuine and artificial amazement at the India Economic Story, which is steered by the RBI, id.,est,the Robbers and Barons Of India.dindooohindoo
The Job of the RBI is NOT to maintain price stability or peg the rupee or print the INR.INR is printed all over the world from BKK to Lagos.With 400 Billion USD anyone can peg the INR to anywhere they want.The Purpose of the RBI is to protect the Robbers and Barons of India, id.,est., Banias,Brahmins etc.,to enable them to loot the Indian People,on the pretext of new business ventures,to keep the wheels of commerce moving,and thus,ensure,a pittance of jobs and excess production capacities.
Furthermore,there is no agri policy in India – except to ensure the disaster of over production,to depress agri farm gate prices, which is to ensure that the input costs for the Robbers and Barons of India and the food costs of the middle classes,are as low as possible – at the cost of the misery,pain and blood of millions of farners.
Since the Robbers and Barons of India,being bania and brahmin weasels and vermin, are INHERENTLY incompetent,they need various subsidies and protection in form of import duties and tax sops – and the biggest sop is the Indian Agri Policy, which is designed to kill farmers and REDUCE the costs of the Banias.
How does the RBI protect the Robbers and Barons.The Indian Banking system does not do any commercial banking.It is a VC enterprise,which lends to ultra-high risk activities,id.est FRAUD.
Let us say Mr A starts a business B and then takes a bank loan from a Private Bank Say HDFC bank – and then steals the money.Then what ? Then The RBI gives him the key to the door of a lower tier Private Bank,like Axis Bank – say,for working capital funding (after sinking the term loan – by diversion and over- invoicing).This money is also eaten up by A.
Then A goes to a 2nd tier state owned bank – but by now his name is flashed ONLY In the banking system.So he floats a new trading cum manufacturing company called D,and starts the entire process again.Within 1 year,he digests this money also. Then he targets the STCIL,MMMTC and MSTC and PEC to get merchant financing for transactions, as a trader or an associate and he rips them off also.
Now,the beauty is that all these Banks and other agencies,have more than Rs 900000 crores of such OUTRIGHT FRAUDS and Mr A has positioned him at a scale and a type of fraud which is far less than the rest and so,Mr A is NOT a Priority for the bank or the legal system.Now Mr A has to be creative.So he taps his trusted suppliers and other participants in the supply and value chain of Business B and D, to raise working capital loans from new banks, based on bogus financial statements – and now Mr A has a cartel – of partners in crime.So Mr A is a seed VC, who has tried and tested the banking system,and placed his confidants in a position to loot money on his behalf – who will follow the same pattern as that of Mr A
Then Mr A moves to the last tier of the Indian Banks,which is the Cooperative banks and Societies – a perpetual black hole.Here he has to just share the loot with the bank board and the local neta.The bank will be bailed out by the state – else,there will be civil war.
The genius of the RBI is that the Indian Public does not know the names of the companies, shareholders and directors of these FRAUDULENT BORROWERS.The RBI says that it is a State Secret.The purpose is to ensure that these Robbers and Barons,can keep the Ponzi scheme working,y ripping off as many institutions,suppliers and public as possible.
Now Mr A has invested the stolen 1 Billion USD, in land or gold or stocks and in 10 years, it is worth say USD 3-5 billion, and he now wants to “get back in the gane”.So what does he do ? He dials the banker and asks for a CDR/OTS,and the banker thinks that an angel has descended from the pole star.The entire bank staff stands in line with garlands and does bharatnatyam when Mt A descends in his Chariot.
Mr A has the interest halved or waived,has the principal loan converted into equity and then uses his OWN 3 Billion USD to route it through some FII or entrepreneur (say USD 100 million) to be a partner in the CDR.He also secures some tax concessions for the old plant.
People say ,Y did he wait for 10 years ? Simple – in 10 years, the demand of the products outstripped supply and the Indian economy and banking was busted and vulnerable.
Next day,it is the top wired news across the world and a case study, for the WB and IMF and Harvard.
But what of Company D ? Mr A says that he has redeemed his sins.So he lets the company be taken over by ARCIL, and uses his links with Netas to force some PSU to PURCHASE THE ASSETS OF CONPANY D, at the WDV and pay off the loans ! WONDERBAR ! Now Mr A will get a Bharat Ratna and be the talk of the Robber Community for decades.
But Mr A has to get back his 100 million USD in the CDR – and so,within a year he does an IPO,and his so called partner, exists his 100 Million at 150 Million,and pays 145 million in cash back to A,and Mr A sells of 5% of the entire equity of his company B,and then,he is off to a Greek Island with the female beaus of Adnan Orkut
All the above,is a part of the Indian GDP.
This is the Indian Economic story and the RBI – which is based on lies,cheating and fraud – and which was blown wide apart by COVID.