Rahul Gandhi attacks Modi over bailing out debt-ridden IL&FS group

The Congress on Sunday stepped up its attack on the Central government with party President Rahul Gandhi alleging that public money was being used to bailout the debtridden ILampFS groupIn a tweet Gandhi alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is bailing out the ILampFS group which has a longterm debt liability of around Rs 91000 crore via public savings in LIC and the State Bank of India SBI The tweet in Hindi titled Lights Camera Scam alleges that in 2007 when Modi was the Gujarat Chief minister ILampFS was given the GIFT CITY project worth Rs 70000 crore Till date no work has been achieved under the planGandhi adds that in 2018 Modi was bailing out the same company via LIC an SBI Recently the Congress has raised the issue and warned of an impending Lehman Brotherstype economic crisis facing the country The ILampFS crisis has also dented equity investors confidence in the entire NBFC space Besides the party has called for a forensic audit of the group over the disbursement of Rs 42000 crore in the last four yearsCongress spokesman Manish Tiwari also tweeted on Sunday This is why ILampFS financials need to be forensically audited as management principal shareholders and NDABJP government are unwilling to address the 42000 crore question Peruse second Graphic minutely Rs 42000 crore was disbursed in past four years Nobody knows where the money disappearedThe call for an audit comes at a time when concerns have been raised regarding the financial stability of the group after some of its subsidiaries defaulted on commercial paper repayment obligations In addition the party has said that public savings via LIC and SBI should not be used to bailout the private entity in which foreign institutions have a stakeOn Saturday the cashstrapped company said it was planning to have a successful rights issue and would sell its assets to repay creditors The company in its Annual General Meeting sought shareholders permission to carry out its plans to recapitalise itself In a video shared by the company after the AGM ILampFS MD Hari Sankaran said that the company addressed the concerns of shareholders to restore normalcy in its operations and proposed a threepoint strategyNumber one to have a successful rights issue which will generate and enable the company to recapitalise itself he said adding that the company also proposes to sell assets in order to repay its creditors The third element of the strategy is to get liquid allocation to support repayments of debtors till our assets sale begins he saidILampFS Financial Services a group company defaulted in payment obligations of bank loans including interest term and shortterm deposits and failed to meet the commercial paper CP redemption obligations due on September 14 On September 15 the company reported that it had received notices for delays and defaults in servicing some of the inter corporate deposits accepted by itConsequent to defaults rating agency ICRA downgraded the ratings of its shortterm and longterm borrowing programmes ILampFS Ltd is a core investment company and serves as the holding company of the ILampFS Group with most business operations domiciled in separate companies which form an ecosystem of expertise across infrastructure finance and social and environmental servicesInitially promoted by the Central Bank of India Housing Development Finance Corporation Ltd and the Unit Trust of India ILampFS was incorporated in 1987 Over the years it has inducted institutional shareholders including SBI LIC ORIX Corporation of Japan and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority ADIAAs on March 31 2018 LIC and ORIX Corporation are the largest shareholders in ILampFS with their stakeholding at 2534 per cent and 2354 per cent respectively Other prominent shareholders include ADIA 1256 per cent HDFC 902 per cent CBI 767 per cent and SBI 642 per centCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updatesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever