UCO Bank declares industrialist Yashovardhan Birla wilful defaulter

State-owned lender UCO Bank has declared Yashovardhan Birla as a wilful defaulter for non-payment of Rs 67.55 crore given to Birla Surya Ltd.

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

UCO Bank has a filed a 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 100 crore 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 of 665 wilful defaulters and the amount outstanding that they owe to the bank, as part of its name-and-shame exercise.

Other prominent wilful defaulters released by UCO Bank include Zoom Developers with outstanding loan amount of Rs 309.50 crore, First Leasing Company of India with Rs 142.94 crore, Moser Baer India with Rs 122.15 crore and Surya Vinayak Industries with NPA of Rs 107.81 crore.