The State Bank of India has classified Reliance Communications and its promoter-director Anil Ambani as “fraud” and is in the process of registering a complaint with the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Union government told Parliament on Monday.

In a written reply in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said that the entities were classified as fraud on June 13 in accordance with the Reserve Bank of India’s Master Directions on Fraud Risk Management and the Board-approved Policy on Classification, Reporting and Management of Frauds.

The minister added that the SBI reported the classification to the RBI on June 24. On July 1, the telecom firm informed the Bombay Stock Exchange about the fraud classification as part of its disclosure compliance.

The credit exposure of the SBI in Reliance Communications includes a fund-based principal outstanding amount of Rs 2,227.64 crore, along with an accrued interest and expenses with effect from August 26, 2016, and a non-fund based bank guarantee of Rs 786.52 crore, Chaudhary said.

He added that the telecom firm was undergoing the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process under the 2016 Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.

The code provides a legal framework to resolve insolvency cases and release non-performing assets quickly.

The minister added that the resolution plan was approved by the Committee of Creditors and filed with the National Company Law Tribunal in Mumbai on March 6, 2020. The approval of the tribunal is awaited.

The SBI had earlier classified the account and Ambani as “fraud” in November 2020 and filed a complaint with the CBI in January 2021. However, the complaint was returned in view of a “status quo” order passed on January 6, 2021 by the Delhi High Court, he added.

The Supreme Court had in March 2023 mandated that lenders provide borrowers with an opportunity to represent themselves before classifying their accounts as fraud. In view of the order, the fraud classification in the account was reversed by the SBI in September 2023, the minister said.

The reply added that the classification process was re-run and the account was once again classified as “fraud” after due process as per a circular issued by the RBI on July 15, 2024.

Last month, Reliance Communications in a regulatory filing said that it had received a letter on June 23 from the SBI on its decision to classify the loan account of the telecom firm as “fraud” and to report Ambani to the RBI.

In 2019, the telecom firm had said that it had decided to file for bankruptcy through the National Company Law Tribunal after failing to sell assets to pay up a debt of around Rs 45,000 crore.