Exhorting public sector banks to take tough action against wilful defaulters, Finance Minister P Chidambaram today said a situation where "promoter is prosperous but company is sick" is not acceptable. 

In his meeting with heads of state-owned banks, he said tough measures need to be taken against wilful defaulters. 

Chidambaram said the "promoter is prosperous but company is sick" is not an acceptable position, and asked banks to "form a consortium and take joint action against such defaulters". 

While addressing the bankers, he said they need to redouble efforts for the recovery and take tough measures against wilful defaulters. 

The top 30 non-performing assets (NPAs) of state-owned banks account for 40.2 per cent of their Gross NPAs. 

Talking to reporters after the meeting, Financial Services Secretary G S Sandhu said banks have been asked to focus on their top 30 defaulters. 

"(There will be) tough action against wilful defaulters, which can include even the change of management because so much money is stuck. Banks have to provide huge amount in terms of provisioning, about Rs 90,000 crore going into provisioning. 

"So we want to recover that. If original borrower does not come up with some option of repayment, then we will call some other person, if he is able to provide that then assets could be handed over to the other person," Sandhu said. (Business Standard)