New Delhi, March 13 (IANS): In the wake of a non-bailable warrant issued against businessman Vijay Mallya in a cheque bounce case, the government on Sunday said the "full force of the law" is being applied to bring all wilful loan defaulters to justice.

"We have some people who are wilful defaulters, who have engaged in illegal activity. As far as they are concerned, the full force of the law is being applied," Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha told reporters here.

"All investigative agencies are working to ensure they are brought to justice," he said at the end of the Advancing Asia conference, co-hosted by the union government and the International Monetary Fund.

The minister said that wilful defaulters and corporates which are unable to repay loans due to hits to their businesses owing to global slowdown should not be "co-mingled and confuse one with the other".

"... there are some corporate groups which, due to a slowdown in the global economy or because of policy failures in the previous government, are facing significant financial distress.

"We've to have an appropriate resolution process as well as appropriate policy interventions to ensure that NPAs (non-performing assets) due to such kinds of reasons go through an orderly workout and resolution process," he added.

Sinha said that the government also has to see that people facing business challenges do not have to go through such problems again.

"We have to deal with structural issues, which is where the bankruptcy code becomes important so that we avoid these kinds of problems in the future as well," he said.