The Enforcement Directorate has attached properties worth about ₹47,099 crore in 515 money laundering cases related to fraud in public and private sector banks during 2014-2022, according to the Finance Ministry.
In response to a query from Lok Sabha Member Ritesh Pandey, the Minister of State in the Finance Ministry said the ED has filed charge sheets before special courts in 115 cases.
“Also, out of the aforementioned 515 cases, 137 cases pertain to the bank frauds wherein amount involved is more than ₹100 crore in each case. In certain cases of loan fugitives, the ED has also attached assets worth ₹19,312 crore up to July 29, 2022,” under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The figure is 85.50% of the defrauded amount of ₹22,586 crore in these cases.
According to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the public and private banks recovered ₹8,39,452 crore from 2014-2015 to 2021-2022 in the Non-Performing Asset (NPA) accounts, including those reported as frauds.
The aggregate amounts involved in frauds in respect of top 100 accounts, based on the date of occurrence of frauds, were ₹38,722 crore (public banks) and ₹10,729 crore (private banks) in 2014-2015. The next financial year, it peaked to ₹51,625 crore for public banks, while the amount was ₹10,484 crore in the case of private banks. The figure for private banks spiked to ₹17,571 crore in 2018-19.
However, the amount gradually reduced and it was ₹7,022 crore for public banks and ₹3,496 crore in 2020-21, whereas in 2021-22 the figure was ₹3,161 crore and ₹406 crore, respectively.
The gross NPA of the borrowing companies, with an outstanding of ₹100 crore and above, was ₹81,921 crore (public banks) and ₹11,370 crore (private banks) as on March 31, 2015; the amount peaked to ₹5,71,676 crore for public banks as on March 31, 2018, and ₹1,23,661 crore for private banks as on March 31, 2020.
The figures stood at ₹2,16,206 crore (public banks) and ₹79,638 crore (private banks) as on March 31, 2022, according to the RBI data.
