MUMBAI: Fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya has not made any offer directly to the bankers waiting to recover Rs 9,000 in loans, the State Bank of India chairman told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Mumbai on Tuesday. Mallya had tweeted that he was offering to pay 100 per cent of the principal amount owed to the banks, “I humbly request banks and government to take it,” even as his extradition from the United Kingdom seemed imminent.
Rajnish Kumar said the bank hoped to recover its dues now that the court had ordered his extradition. However, he said that he had not received any offer from Mallya. “SBI is the lead consortium. As of date we have not received any offers,” he said.
Kumar said the message was very loud and clear, that one could not default and run away to another country. “It is a commendable effort by the government as far as this case is concerned,” he said.
PTI had reported from London that the UK court was critical of Indian banks for their failure to obtain proper credit reports before sanctioning loans to Mallya.
“There was a failure to ensure that the guarantees were formally taken when they should have been and a failure to investigate the representations that KFA (Kingfisher Airlines) made at various stages to obtain the loans,” the judge said.
The judge described these as “continuing failures” by banks and said it remained unclear if these were by design and with a hidden financial motive.