Jaitley dubs loan waiver to capitalists as ‘fiction’
Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Arun Jaitley, on Tuesday, dubbed rumours of the union government's supposed waiver of loans to capitalists as "fiction”, and clarified that dues of not even a single large defaulter have been waived-off. The Minister said the government has not waived the loans of big defaulters and that cases have been instituted in the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for the timebound recovery, of Rs 1.75 lakh crore from the 12 largest defaulters, in six to nine months. He then went on to point out the strong steps taken over the past three years, saying that "not only have the problems received as legacy been addressed, but the strength of public sector banks have also been boosted" to provide loans to honest business persons. "It is all because of an allround clean-up initiated by the present government that would result in a clean system in the country," the Minister affirmed in a fourpage article circulated by the BJP headquarters in the capital.
Jaitley stressed that the Modi government is working towards sorting issues inherited from the previous Congress-led rule, when public-sector banks disbursed disproportionate loans to several industries between 2008 and 2014. Rather than taking firm decisions against such debtors, the previous government asked banks to keep "ever-greening" loans while keeping the loss to banks "hidden”, Jaitley said, and added that the public must ask at whose behest or under whose pressure were those loans disbursed.
Furthermore, responding to criticism on recapitalisation of banks, Jaitley said it was not a case of waiving bad loans and that India’s state-owned banks had been provided capital in the past as well.
"During 2010-11 to 2013-14 too, the [then] government provided banks an amount of Rs 44,000 crore for recapitalization. Was that also for waiving off loans of capitalists?"