Punjab National Bank (PNB) has turned smarter after l’affaire Vijay Mallya. The public sector lender has started moving the passport authorities to ensure that ‘wilful defaulters’ do not leave the country without the bank’s approval.

PNB has, through the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT), ensured that the names of 250 ‘wilful defaulters’ are recorded by the immigration authorities in their systems, Usha Ananthasubramanian, Managing Director and CEO of the bank, said.

Whenever a wilful defaulter goes to immigration for going abroad, the system will automatically throw up a message: “permission required to move abroad”.

Requests have also been made by PNB to the DRT for a similar process in the case of another 500 wilful defaulters, sources said.

In India, neither banks nor civil courts have the power to impound passports and this can be done only by the passport authority under the Passports Act 1967, Amit Vyas, Founder Partner, Vertices Partners, a Mumbai-based law firm, told BusinessLine . Banks, such as PNB, are approaching the DRTs, which then go to the passport authorities to do the needful. In February, PNB had created history of sorts by making public the list of 900 wilful defaulters, including Winsome Diamonds, Zoom Developers and Nafed, which owed ₹11,000 crore to the bank.

Till date, there are over 7,000 deliberate and wilful defaulters who owe ₹60,000 crore to banks.

Meanwhile, sources said PNB was unlikely to accept any offer from liquor baron Mallya that does not involve full payment of the dues. “PNB view is he (Mallya) has to pay the money in full,” a top bank official said.

Mallya has reportedly made a new settlement offer to consortium leader State Bank of India expressing his willingness to settle for less than what is due to the banks. He has been showing willingness to pay up after running out of all options to avoid repayments.

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