Mallya's offer to repay loan a farce, no bank can accept: Prabhakar Kaza

Loan default by high-profile liquor-baron Vijay Mallya and his subsequent flight from the country brought the issue of rising NPAs of public sector banks to the centre-stage of public debate, writes ETV Bharat’s Krishnanand Tripathi.

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.

It was Vijay Mallya’s case and his subsequent flight from India that brought the public attention firmly on the issue of rising bad loans or non-performing assets of public sector banks.

According to the information given by Anurag Thakur, the minister of state for finance, in the Lok Sabha in February this year, non-performing assets or bad loans of public sector bank stood at Rs 7.27 lakh crore at the end of September 2019, which was slightly lower than the total fiscal deficit of the Union government at Rs 7.67 lakh crore in FY 2019-20.

Vijay Mallya’s issue also highlighted the issue of wilful default where companies and industry leaders were perceived to be deliberately not paying the loans borrowed from public banks despite having the capacity to repay.

Prabhakar Kaza, who worked with both Indian and foreign banks in the UK where Vijay Mallya’s case for extradition was fought, says it's difficult to realize the amount by selling the assets offered by the absconder businessman.

“You know whenever you sell something at a distress value, you hardly get 50-70% of the actual value of the property. So that's the case of Mr Mallya,” former head of SBI, UK said in a webinar organized by Mumbai based payment technology and ATM management firm – EPS India.

After losing a protracted legal battle against the extradition request by the Indian authorities, Vijay Mallya applied for asylum in UK last month. Though a final decision is yet to be taken on Mallya’s asylum request but if it is refused then the fugitive businessman will be brought here to face the trial.

Prabhakar Kaza also rejects the argument that Mallya should be given a chance to make his offer good.

“He is not going to get State Bank of India its Rs 9,000 crores. A lot of people have argued that let's listen to him, and he might pay Rs 9,000 crores. But then he has got so may conditions, and I heard it from top most persons in the State Bank of India that no bank can satisfy and no bank can accept,” said the former banker.