Big wilful defaulters owed Rs 15,171.91 crore in loans to Punjab National Bank at the end of March this year.
The data from the bank relates to those wilful defaulters who have taken loans of Rs 25 lakh and above but did not repay despite the ability to do so.
The liability on such defaulters rose by 1.8 per cent from Rs 14,904.65 crore in February. The public sector lender has been putting out the names of wilful defaulters and firms since June 2017. Within ten months, these defaults have grown by 28 per cent, from Rs 11,879.74 crore.
The major wilful defaulters include chemical manufacturer Kudos Chemie ltd — Rs 1,301.82 crore; Kingfisher Airlines — Rs 597.44 crore; VMC Systems ltd — Rs 296.08 crore; Arvind Remedies — Rs 158.16 crore and Indu Projects ltd Rs 102.83 crore.