Indian lender declares Yashovardhan Birla as wilful defaulter

INDIA’S state-owned lender UCO Bank has declared Yashovardhan Birla as wilful defaulter for non-payment of Rs 675.5 million (£7.69m) given to Birla Surya Ltd.

The loan was given by UCO Bank as part of a consortium including Indian lenders- State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, and United Bank of India.

Yash Birla Group is a business conglomerate based in India’s commercial capital, Mumbai. Its chairman Yashovardhan Birla, is a member of the Birla family.

The bank has a filed suit to recover the amount from the defaulter, according to the information made public by the bank on its website.

According to a public notice, Birla Surya Ltd was sanctioned a credit limit of Rs 1 billion for fund-based facilities, for the purpose of manufacturing multi-crystalline solar photovoltaic cells, from UCO Bank's corporate branch at Nariman Point, Mumbai.

"Due to non-repayment of dues to the bank, the account was declared non-performing asset (NPA) on June 3, 2013. The borrower has not repaid the dues owed to the bank despite several notices. The borrower company and its directors, promoters, guarantors were declared as wilful defaulters by the bank and their name reported to the credit information companies for public information," the notice said.

Once declared a wilful defaulter, as per RBI's instructions, the borrower is not sanctioned any additional facilities by banks or financial institutions and the unit is debarred from floating new ventures for five years and lenders may initiate criminal proceedings against the company and its directors.

The Kolkata-based lender has issued a list 665 wilful defaulters and the amount outstanding that they owe to the bank, as part of name and shame exercise.

Other prominent wilful defaulters released by the bank include Zoom Developers with an outstanding loan amount of Rs 3095m, First Leasing Company of India with Rs 1429.4m, Moser Baer India with Rs 1221.5m and Surya Vinayak Industries with NPA of Rs 1078.1m.

(PTI)