Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday night said that wilful loan defaulters received benefits of “phone banking” under the United Progressive Alliance regime and that the Narendra Modi-led government has been after them for recovery.
The Reserve Bank of India has released a list of the top 50 defaulters in the country till February 16. These 50 defaulters included the companies of absconding businessman Mehul Choksi and fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya.
The information revealed that the top 50 defaulters have alone accounted for loans worth Rs 68,607 crore, being written off in the banking system until September 2019. The central bank released the data in its response to a Right to Information query.
Following RBI’s declaration, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had said the defaulters were friends of the Bharatiya Janata Party. In March, Gandhi had in Parliament asked for the same details on the defaulters as the RTI query.
“Those defaulters who do not repay despite having capacity to pay, divert or siphon-off funds, or dispose of secured assets without bank’s permission are categorised as wilful defaulters,” Sitharaman wrote in a series of 13 tweets on Tuesday. “They are those well-connected promoters who benefitted from UPA’s phone banking.”
Sitharaman accused Gandhi and Congress leader Randeep Surjewala of misleading people and said the party had resorted to “sensationalising facts by taking them out of context”. “Today’s attempt of the Congress leaders is to mislead on wilful defaulters, bad loans and write-offs,” she tweeted. “Between 2009-’10 and 2013-’14, scheduled commercial banks had written off Rs 14,5226.00 crores. Wished Shri Rahul Gandhi consulted Dr Manmohan Singh on what this writing-off was about.”
The finance minister detailed the provisions for the non-performing assets. “Provisions are made for NPAs as per the four-year provisioning cycle laid down by the RBI,” she said. “Upon full provisioning being done banks write-off the fully provided NPA but continue to pursue recovery against the borrower. No loan is waived off.”
She also provided details of certain high-profile cases, including that of Vijay Mallya, Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi. Sitharaman claimed the Modi government had 9,967 recovery suits, 3,515 first information reports invoking Fugitive Amendment Act. “Total value of attachment and seizures in the cases of Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and Vijay Mallya: Rs 18,332.7 crore,” she tweeted.
The Congress and Gandhi should think about why they failed to play a more constructive role, said the finance minister. “Neither while in power, nor while in the Opposition has the Congress shown any commitment or inclination to stop corruption and cronyism,” Sitharaman added.
On Wednesday, Union minister Prakash Javadekar said that Gandhi’s remarks had surprised him. “I was taken aback by Rahul Gandhi’s comment that Modi government has waived off Rs 65,000 crore,” he said, according to ANI. “Not a single penny has been waived off. Writing off isn’t waiving off. Rahul Gandhi must take tuition from Chidambaram to understand difference between writing off and waiving off.”
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