Rs 2.4 Lakh Crore Loans Written Off In Over 3 Years, Mamata Banerjee Slams Government
Borrowers continue to be liable for repayment, said government Government did not disclose the name of borrowers, citing RBI Act Stressed-loan pile in banking sector has more than doubled in 5 years
Public sector banks (PSBs) wrote off Rs 2.41 lakh crore worth of loans in over three years, between April 2014 and September 2017. This was disclosed by minister of state for finance Shiv Pratap Shukla said in a written reply in Parliament on Tuesday. The disclosure came under strong criticism from Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee. "I am shocked to see that at a time, when the farmers in the country are crying and committing suicide for their loan burden and asking for waiver of farmers' loan, the Government of India have not even considered that," the West Bengal chief minister said in a Facebook post.
In his reply to the Rajya Sabha, the union finance minister of state said that writing off non-performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans is a regular exercise conducted by banks to clean up their balance sheet and to achieve taxation efficiency.
