Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

Fraud-hit Punjab National Bank has invited applications for empanelment of detective agencies to locate its untraceable borrowers as it looks to “significantly” supplement efforts to recover bad loans which surged to 57,519 crore at December end.

In its efforts to recover NPAs, the PNB has also resorted to ‘Gandhigiri’ wherein its staff hopes to ‘name and shame’ defaulting borrowers to recover up to Rs 150 crore worth bad loans every month.

Onimpanellingg detectives, PNB said the policy aims to significantly supplement efforts of the field officials in recovering bank’s dues in NPA accounts. Their job will include locating the borrower, co-borrower, guarantor and mortgagors, in and outside India, including their legal heirs who are either untraceable or not available at the addresses given in the bank’s records. They will have to ascertain latest information about their present addresses, occupation, businesses, income streams, details of their all assets, whether charged or uncharged, their location (whether in India or abroad) and value and ownership.

Both Modi and Choksi are absconding and are said to be outside India.

After the scam, the fraud-hit bank has taken an aggressive stand towards willful defaulters by impounding 150 passports and lodging 37 FIRs.

PNB is reeling under a massive fraud amounting to thousands of crores of rupees, has suffered losses of over Rs 14,500 crore in this fiscal so far, Parliament was informed this week.

In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha on March 20, Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla said the state-owned bank’s loss in 2015-16 was Rs 341.03 crore which has risen to 14,506.39 crore in FY 2017-18.

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