New Delhi: Over 6,800 cases of bank fraud involving a whopping Rs 71,500 crore have been reported in 2018-19, the Reserve Bank of India has said. A total of 5,916 such cases were reported by banks in 2017-18 involving Rs 41,167.03 crore, it said.
As many as 6,801 cases of fraud were reported by scheduled commercial banks and select financial institutions involving an amount of Rs 71,542.93 crore in the last fiscal (an increase of over 73 per cent in the fraud amount), the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in reply to an RTI query.
In the last 11 fiscal years, a total of 53,334 cases of fraud were reported by banks involving a massive amount of Rs 2.05 lakh crore, the central bank's data said.
During 2008-09, a total of 4,372 cases were reported involving an amount of Rs 1,860.09 crore. In 2009-10, Rs 1,998.94 crore worth fraud was reported in 4,669 cases.
A total of 4,534 and 4,093 such cases were reported in 2010-11 and 2011-12 involving Rs 3,815.76 crore and Rs 4,501.15 crore, respectively.
In the 2012-13 fiscal, 4,235 fraud cases involving Rs 8,590.86 crore were reported by banks as against 4,306 cases (involving Rs 10,170.81 crore) in 2013-14 and 4,639 cases (involving Rs 19,455.07 crore) in 2014-15, the RBI said.
As many as 4,693 and 5,076 cases of fraud were reported in 2015-16 and 2016-17 involving Rs 18,698.82 crore and Rs 23,933.85 crore, respectively, it said.
"Cases of fraud reported to RBI are required to be filed by banks as criminal complaints with law enforcement agencies. The information in respect of action being taken or already taken is not available readily," the central bank said.
The data assumes significance as banks are beset with high-profile fraud cases involving absconding billionaire Nirav Modi and liquor baron Vijay Mallya among others.
The large-scale fraud had prompted anti-corruption watchdog Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) to do an analysis and it came out with a report on top 100 frauds.
The analysis focussed on the modus operandi, the amount involved, type of lending (consortium or individual), anomalies observed, loopholes that facilitated the perpetration of the fraud concerned and the systemic improvement required to plug the gaps in the system and procedures.
The frauds were classified and analysed for 13 sectors, including gem and jewellery, manufacturing and industry, agriculture, media, aviation, service and project, discounting of cheques, trading, information technology, export business, fixed deposits, demand loan and letter of comfort.
With PTI inputs