BANGALORE: State-run commercial lender UCO Bank has sent notices to liquor baron Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher Airlines and United Beverages after identifying the two companies as ‘wilful defaulters’.
KfA had availed a loan of Rs 300 crore and had defaulted on the payments and the interest accrued is around Rs 100 crore, it was reported. Interestingly India’s 84th richest man according to Forbes has failed to service his total bank debt exposure of Rs 8,000 crore. A stark contrast to the common man who dreads missing out on loan installment payments as the bank makes it difficult for one to survive.
“We have sent notices to the defunct carrier Kingfisher Airlines and United Beverages, which had given a corporate guarantee to the bank for availing of the loan”, agencies quoted senior officials from the bank. The tag which has (in recent times) replaced Mallya’s former references like ‘king of good times’. Even United Bank of India and State Bank of India have sent similar notices to Mallya and his grounded carrier.
But these notices has had little or no effect on Mallya’s flashy lifestyle as he continues to flaunt despite the plight of KfA employees, who have not been paid for over 2 years now. The wife of a Delhi based engineer had committed suicide over non-payment of salaries; incidents which is yet to have any impact on Mallya.
Instead, Mallya chose to blame the grounding of KfA on his employees at the company’s Annual General Meeting in 2013. Even Members of Parliament questioned the initiatives taken to take action against wilful defaulters who live lavish lives and own IPL teams but fail to repay loans to banks. But no action has been taken against the company which has been declared the top NPA with over Rs 4,000 crore unpaid loans.