New Delhi, Feb 22 (UNI) The Congress on Saturday accused Narendra Modi government of waiving off loans of big capitals, and demanded to reveal the names of of those whose debt has been written off.
"The government will tell you that NPAs have gone down from 11.7 per cent to 9.2 per cent. It should have been good news, economy should have improved. But the truth is different, banks are actually waiving off loans of big capitalists", alleged Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate at a press conference in AICC headquarters.
Stressing the allegation, she said that when loans are given in banking, some loans become stressed assets and this is the situation before NPA.
"As on date, about 16 per cent of total loans has become stressed assets, which is Rs 16.88 lakh crore. These are the figures for December 2019, it was 12 per cent in 2017. It is clear sign and signal of an acute slowdown in the Indian economy", he said.
The Congress spokesperson further said that some economic issues, which was constantly raised by the opposition, will shake the government 'out of its slumber', however, "the government will come out of denial".
Quoting some of the media reports, she said that the banking problem is affecting India badly.
"Until the banking system improves, India's economic plight is almost impossible to solve. Today a similar crisis has occurred. In the December quarter, new NPAs have started to form and the pace has increased. This includes new sector telecom, real estate, MSME and commercial vehicles. There are NPAs in these as well", Ms Shrinate said.
Taking on the government, she stated that since the BJP came to power in 2014, a debt of about Rs 8 lakh crore has been waived off.
"Mostly loans of big industrialists have been waived off while loans should have been recovered from them. Every person in this country is a taxpayer. Despite the loan waiver of about Rs 8 lakh crores, it was not mentioned whose loans have been waived off? Why this privacy?", she asked.
She further charged that whenever BJP government is questioned on the condition of the banking sector, they blame the previous government.
"But lying again and again does not change the truth. What has the BJP government done for banking reforms in the past 6 years?" she asked and raised three demands.
"Names of those whose debt has been waived off should be made public, high level committee should be constituted to examine the process of loan waiver and this committee should assess financial viability and potential of the banking sector", Ms Shrinate added.
UNI KNA ADG 1756