May 18, 2026

Questions mount as HDFC Bank revises defaulter list, cuts dues by Rs 4,883 crore

By J Gopikrishnan

HDFC Bank rectified its list of large defaulters’ dues from Rs 54,315 crores to Rs 49,432 crore. On April 9, The Pioneer reported citing the bank’s filings to the rating agency TransUnion CIBIL on month of February that large defaulters dues is Rs 54,315 crore and the bank has filed recovery cases in courts with 4,914 cases or entries. Banks routinely classify those having dues above Rs 1 crore as Large Defaulters and below Rs 1 crore dues as Willful Defaulters, after all options of repayment or one-time settlement close and goes to courts for recovery.

When The Pioneer published report on April 9, HDFC bank responded that it had only around Rs 18,890 crore “outstanding balances”. But Bank failed to respond how they filed data to TransUnion CIBIL showing large defaulters dues is Rs 54,315 crore.

On April 17, HDFC Bank filed rectified data of large defaulters up to March. As per the data, Banks large defaulters reduced from Rs 54,315 crores to Rs 49,432 crore. Recovery cases or entries reduced from 4,914 to 4,195. Rectified data up to March filed shows that HDFC banks has reduced the dues of their top defaulter Feed Back Energy Distribution dues from Rs 1,876 crore to Rs 876 crore.

Similarly, second biggest defaulter’s dues were also reduced in the rectified filing. In up to February filing HDFC Bank said Chennai based SreeRengaraj Ispat Industries’ dues was Rs 1,764 crore. But the rectified filing up to March of the company shows due is only Rs 176 crore. Both companies are in insolvency or liquidations stages and there is no chance by them to pay loan dues to HDFC Bank within a month, after The Pioneer published the report on April 9.

On April 22, The Pioneer wrote to HDFC Bank, asking how they reduced `4,883 crore and reduced 719 cases or entries: “We have just analysed HDFC Bank’s new data filed to TransUnion CIBIL on Large Defaulters List up to March 2026, which shows a reduction of cases/entries. In your data up to February filings ( we reported on April 9), the total dues were Rs 54,315 crore with 4914 cases or entries. Now as per your March fling, the total dues reduced to Rs 49,432 crore with 4195 cases or entries. So as per new data, 719 cases or entries are reduced and dues reduction of Rs 4,883 crores. We are not going into all specifics of reduction. We are only seeking response on the main cases. As per your February filings, the highest dues were shown to Delhi based Feedback Energy Distribution and its linked firm Feedback Infra with 17 cases or entries with a total due of Rs 1,876 crore. Now as per your latest March filing, this company is having only eight cases or entries with a dues of Rs 876 crore. The same is the case of Chennai based Sree Rengaraj Ispat Industries — with due of Rs 1,764 crore with 10 cases or entries. Now in the March filings, the same company is having only one entry with Rs. 176 crore. The rest of the largest defaulters in our April 9 report is same in the new list and same dues are shown. Seeking your response on the reduction of 719 entries in the new filing of March 2026 and reduction of Rs 4,883 crore. Is this mistakes corrected or loans repaid or written off or restructured?”

Till date HDFC Bank, embroiled in many controversies, including their Chairman Atanu Chakraborty’s exit without telling reasons, has not yet responded.

As per the rectified list of large defaulters, Kolkata-based Riverbank Developers is the biggest defaulter with Rs 1,572 crore in dues, followed by Karvy Stock Broking (Rs 1,558 crore), Mumbai-based Tycoons Avanti Projects (Rs 1.085 crore), Himachal Pradesh based and Delhi registered Indian Technomac (Rs 1,024 crore) and Noida based Daewoo Motors Indian Limited with a dues of Rs 1,023 crore to HDFC bank through 14 loans.

Other major defaulters of HDFC Bank in the range of Rs 600 crore to Rs 1,000 crore are : Cuttack based Gupta Power Infrastructure (Rs 976 crore), Mumbai based Tridhaatu Ventures (Rs 903 crore), Bengaluru based Camson Bio Technologies (Rs 854 crore) and Faridabad based CMI Limited (Rs 758 crore). All these companies are now under insolvency or liquidation process.

The Pioneer has published more than 20 articles so far about Largest Defaulters of 12 Public Sector Banks and three major private banks, crossing more than dues of Rs 30 lakh crore is pending in recovery cases and many of the defaulter companies have fizzled out through insolvency or liquidation process and the persons behind these companies have siphoned this huge amount of money to their private accounts, assets in India and abroad.

Now it is time for the Finance Ministry and Government to make changes in laws and create Fast Track Courts to recover the money of public, looted by these large defaulters in connivance with Bankers and their political patronising nexus with Corporates.

Rectified List of Large Defaulters of HDFC Bank - Total Rs 49,432 crore