Bank frauds: Congress seeks White Paper, Govt gives clarification

New Delhi, June 05: The Congress party has demanded Modi government to release a White Paper on alleged rising incidents of bank frauds in the country by citing cited a report by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergil said, "Through an RTI query, it has been revealed that the the bank fraud cases rose in last one year to 6,800 to the tune of ₹71,500 crore."

The RBI in an RTI reply had disclosed that over 6,800 cases of bank fraud involving an unprecedented Rs 71,500 crore were reported in 2018-19 as against a total of 5,916 such cases in 2017-18 involving Rs 41,167.03 crore.

Shergil also accused that Modi government is hiding the name of wilful defaulters.

"The Supreme Court in 2015 directed the RBI and the government to disclose the names of the wilful defaulters. But the names have not been disclosed yet. Why is the BJP hiding these names?" he asked.

The Finance Ministry, however, said that media reports based on the RBI reply are incorrect as there has been no rise in bank frauds in the recent years.

"RBI data on frauds reported to it by banks has been cited in sections of the media to paint a picture of rising frauds in banks in recent years. The fact is that this data is by the year of reporting and not the year of occurrence of the fraud or sanction of loan, Letter of Undertaking etc., which in many cases is of an earlier period," said Finance Ministry.

It also said that the bank frauds have been systematically dealt with through comprehensive banking reforms instituted by the Government.

"Government has issued instruction that all accounts exceeding Rs. 50 crore, if classified as NPAs, be examined by banks from the angle of possible fraud. In addition, Public Sector Banks (PSBs) have also been advised to seek a report on the borrower from the Central Economic Intelligence Bureau, in case an account turns non-performing asset (NPA)," said the ministry.

The ministry also said that proactive action has been taken against wilful defaulters and PSBs have registered FIRs against 2,881 wilful defaulters.