Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has stated that public sector banks (PSBs) have written-off loans worth Rs 81,683 crore in the financial year 2016-17, including Rs 20,339 crore by the State Bank of India. He indicated that, the amount written off by nationalized banks was Rs 28,781 crore during the current fiscal (up to September, 2017). Besides, he noted that writing-off of loans is done for tax benefit as well as capital optimization. However, he clarified that borrowers of such loans continued to be liable for repayment.
As per the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines and policy approved by bank Boards, non-performing loans, including those in respect of which full provisioning has been made on completion of four years, are removed from the balance-sheet of the bank concerned by way of write-off. The minister further said that recovery of dues takes place on ongoing basis under legal mechanisms, which include, the Secularisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, Debts Recovery Tribunals and Lok Adalats. Therefore, he said that write-off does not benefit borrowers.
Besides, Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla has said that in the five-financial years since April 1, 2013, banks have reported 13,643 cases of fraud involving a total amount of Rs 52,717 crore. On a query regarding benami deals, he said that over 1,000 properties have been attached provisionally under the Prohibition of Benami Properties Transactions Act till January 31, 2018. He added that the value of properties under provisional attachment is over Rs 38 billion.
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