There has been a 60% increase in the number of wilful defaulters in nationalized banks in the 5 years to March 2019, finance minister Nirmala Seetharaman, told the Lok Sabha in a written reply. She said there are 8582 wilful defaulters of nationalized banks as on 31 March 2019. Seetharaman said the number of wilful defaulters increased to 6575 in 2015-16; 7079 in 2016-17 and further to 7535 in 2017-18. She added that these defaulters are acted against comprehensively and as per RBI’s instructions, these defaulters are not sanctioned any additional facilities by banks or financial institutions, and their units are debarred from floating new ventures for 5 years. She said Rs7654 crore has been recovered from wilful defaulters’ accounts during the last 5 financial years.
