The Reserve Bank of India has sent the second list of over 40 large corporate defaulters that include Videocon, JP Associates, IVRCL, JSPL and Visa Steel, among others, to be referred to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), reported CNBC-TV18 on Tuesday, quoting sources.
Financial daily Economic Times had said on Monday that the central bank was likely to advise the lenders to haul these companies to the NCLT for bankruptcy proceedings.
"One should not think that just the first set of companies that have been identified alone are the problem. There is problem certainly down the line also," R Gandhi, Former Deputy Governor, RBI, told television channel ETNow.
Financial website Moneycontrol.com said that some other loan defaulting companies -- Uttam Galva, Castex, Jayswal Neco, Ruchi Soya, Nagarjuna Oil & Orchid Chemicals, East Coast Energy, SEL Manufacturing, Soma Enterprises, Asian Colour, Ispat Coated and Unity Infraprojects -- are among the fresh list identified by the central bank to be referred to the NCLT under the newly enacted Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) 2016.
CNBC -TV18 had reported that these companies would be sent to NCLT if the debt issue is not resolved by mid-December and the list is likely to be released in September.
Economic Times noted that most of the companies on the list are from the infrastructure and power sectors. It said that when contacted for a reaction, JSPL told ETNow: "As a policy, we don't respond to speculative queries."
In each case, the debt level varies between Rs 3,000 crore and Rs 50,000 crore. Queries ETNow sent to Uttam Galva and Videocon did not extract any response immediately, the Economic Times reported.
R Gandhi told ET Now that these companies were definitely put on alert when RBI announced the first list of accounts, which should be taken to the IBC. At that time, the banks and these accounts should have resolved their cases. Since voluntarily resolution has not been forthcoming, it has to be taken for compulsorily through the legal process, Gandhi said.
The total defaulter list may have 35-40 accounts and State Bank of India alone gets a list of 25-26 accounts, CNBC-TV18 sources added.
In June, an internal advisory committee of the central bank had identified the first batch of 12 accounts of corporate borrowers for insolvency proceedings under the IBC 2016.
Each of these companies owed over Rs 5,000 crore with a total involvement of around Rs 1,75,000 crore, accounting for up to 25 per cent of the current gross non-performing assets in the banking system.
According to a Moneycontrol.com report other companies on the list include Visa Steel, Ruchi Soya, Unity Infra, SEL Manufacturing, Monnet Power, Orchid Chemicals, Shakti Bhog, Nagarjuna Oil, Jai Balaji Ind, Some Enterprise, Videocon Tele and Essar Projects among others.
In June, the central bank had identified 12 large stressed accounts to be taken to the NCLT. Each of these companies owed over Rs 5,000 crore with a total of around Rs 1,75,000 crore, accounting for 25 percent of the bad loans in the Indian banking system.
