Sunday, 24 November 2013

Expose defaulters who owe banks over Rs 1 crore, union tells Govt

The All-India Bank Employees Association, which will observe December 5 as an ‘All-India Demands Day’ to highlight the threat of bad loans to the banking sector, has urged the Government to publish the names of all loan defaulters who owe banks more than a Rs 1 crore.

The association also wants the Government to make wilful default of bank loans a criminal offence, and bring changes in debt recovery laws to speed up recovery of loans.

C. H. Venkatachalam, General Secretary of AIBEA, pointed out in a statement that bad loans in public sector banks had leapfrogged over the last few years. While the gross NPA (non-performing asset) was Rs 39,030 crore in March 2008, it jumped to Rs 1,64,461 crore in March this year.

The quantum of bad loans in the entire banking sector, including foreign banks, is now over Rs 2-lakh crore.

Fresh bad loans were growing at an alarming pace. Quoting RBI data, he said banks had added nearly Rs 5-lakh crore to their bad loans between 2007 and 2013. “There clearly is a nexus among borrowers, banks and political administration,” Venkatachalam said. Read more