JAITLEY ASKS BANKS NOT TO OVERSTATE BAD LOANS CRISIS

NEW DELHI: Finance minister Arun Jaitley asked banks on Saturday not to “overstate” the crisis of bad loans as that could derail lending and hurt the economy though he promised to look into individual misdemeanour amid outrage over the Rs7,000 crore default by liquor baron Vijay Mallya.

“We don’t want to create a situation where we overstate the crisis and in the process, the whole activity of lending for growth itself starts suffering because people become extraordinarily defensive,” Jaitley said at a press conference after a post-budget meeting with the central board of RBI. “It’s that limited category where there is some kind of a prima facie misconduct or misdemeanour which has taken place by the individual... those areas which will be looked into differently,” the finance minister said.

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