Shiv Sena (UBT) questions Centre over Rs 7.75 lakh crore bank loan write-offs and recoveries

The Shiv Sena UBT on Thursday criticised the Centre over the writeoff of large corporate loans by public sector banks alleging that the government has adopted a lenient approach towards major loan defaulters while ordinary borrowers continue to face strict recovery measuresIn an editorial published in its mouthpiece Saamana the Uddhav Thackerayled party cited figures shared by the Union government in Parliament to question the handling of bad loans and the recovery process The editorial also accused the government of lacking transparency by not disclosing the names of large corporate defaultersEditorial cites Parliament data on bank loan writeoffsReferring to a written reply by Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary in the Lok Sabha the editorial said public sector banks had written off bad loans worth Rs 775 lakh crore across 1249 loan accounts each involving outstanding dues of Rs 100 crore or more between the financial years 201415 and 202526According to the editorial banks have recovered Rs 310 lakh crore from these writtenoff accounts so farThe Centre has maintained that loan writeoffs are a standard accounting practice for nonperforming assets and do not amount to waiving the borrowers liability as recovery efforts continue even after the writeoffSena questions governments defenceThe Saamana editorial criticised the governments explanation arguing that transferring unrecovered loans into bad debt accounts without stronger recovery measures raised serious questions about financial disciplineAll of this is deeply shocking Ever since coming to power the Modi government has continuously beaten its chest about bringing financial discipline to the banking system So under what definition of financial discipline does it fall to simply transfer unrecovered loans into bad debt accounts instead of enforcing recovery while big industrialists pull off such massive heists on banks the editorial saidThe party further alleged that the prevailing system appeared to encourage largescale loan defaultsTaking massive loans repaying a tiny fraction and defaulting on the rest seems to have received official state sanction the editorial said describing the present period as an Amrit Kaal of DefaultIt added An Amrit Kaal of Loan Defaulting has commenced in the country where poor cockroaches must tighten their belts to pay off their loan instalments while wealthy billionaires get to bankrupt the banks If the government itself is complicit who is going to stop these robbers from looting public moneyParty seeks disclosure of major defaultersA key issue raised in the editorial was the governments refusal to publicly identify the corporate entities whose loans had been written offThe Centre has cited Section 45E of the Reserve Bank of India RBI Act which mandates confidentiality of borrower credit information as the reason for withholding the names of major defaultersQuestioning this position the editorial said Why are the names of small default borrowers publicly advertised in newspapers while billionaire defaulters are shielded behind confidentiality clauses Why are properties vehicles and homes of middleclass citizens small business owners and farmers seized or sealed over tiny defaults while big corporate tycoons face no such actionAllegations over unequal treatment of borrowersThe Shiv Sena UBT also alleged that ordinary borrowers and small businesses face stricter recovery mechanisms than large corporate borrowersThe editorial questioned whether influential corporate defaulters received preferential treatment because of their political connections and alleged the existence of an unspoken policy of Give donations get loan writeoffsThe ruling Bharatiya Janata Party BJP has not responded to these allegations in the statement provided by IANSEditorial alleges collusion in public sector bank lossesConcluding its criticism the editorial claimed that public sector banks were suffering losses because of alleged collusion between influential corporate borrowers and those in powerThe party argued that while middleclass families farmers and small entrepreneurs continued to repay loans under financial strain largescale corporate defaults had become a serious concern for the banking system