New Delhi: Fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya’s repeated offers to repay loans worth over Rs 9,000 crore taken from SBI, IDBI and others is a farce which no bank can accept, said a top banker.
Vijay Mallya, a former Rajya Sabha member and owner of now defunct Kingfisher Airlines fled India in 2016 after a consortium led by the State Bank of India, moved to get his passport impounded.
The flamboyant liquor baron, who has been absconding from Indian authorities for more than four years, has made repeated public offers to repay every single penny borrowed from Indian banks. He keeps complaining that his offer has not been accepted by the banks.
A claim rubbished by top bankers who are well versed with the case in both UK and India.
“In the case of Mallya, he does say it again and again that he has got the money to pay. What I hear is that he got the money to pay. But money is not like that there is a big closet full of cash from where he takes it out and gives it to the State Bank of India to get a clean chit,” said Prabhakar Kaza, former CEO of SBI UK, in response to a question by ETV Bharat in the Business and Banking Dialogue organised by EPS India.
Prabhakar Kaza says like any other businessman, Vijay Mallya has also invested his money in stocks, shares, bank accounts and also in properties and other businesses.
“Whenever State Bank of India, as the head of the consortium asked him to pay back, every time he gives a whole list and says if he liquidates all this at this rate then he will be able to repay,” Kaza said while elaborating about the fugitive liquor baron’s publicity stunt.
Vijay Mallya, who became Chairman of UB Spirits in 1983 at the age of 28, started Kingfisher Airlines in 2005. However, barely seven years after its start, he had to shut the operation of airlines due to mounting losses but by the time he had accumulated thousands of crores of rupees in debt. According to publicly available information, the total liabilities account for nearly Rs 9,000 crores.
Authorities have also accused Mallya and Kingfisher Airlines of diversion of funds, and in January 2019, he was declared an economic offender and a fugitive by the court.