Yechury asks PM to work on urgent plan for loan recovery

New Delhi, July 8: Alleging that non-repayment of Rs 8.75 lakh crore of loans by "few big" corporate houses to public sector banks was "misappropriation" of people's money, CPI(M) today asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to work on an urgent action plan to start recovery of pending dues from top 100 borrowers.

In a letter to Modi, CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury asked the Prime Minister to ensure no further public money is given to public sector banks (PSBs) till all the assets of the defaulters concerned have been monetised.

The failure in doing so, he said, will mean the government is making "poor" Indians pay for "profligacy" of crony capitalists and is "beholden" to the power of ill-gotten money. He referred to RBI's Financial Stability Report and said it highlighted "precarious" situation of the banking sector.

"More than Rs 8.5 lakh crore (Rs 8,55,551 crore) of the loans given by our banks have not been returned by the borrowers. Going by their response and the action taken by your government so far, it is highly unlikely that these monies will be returned anytime soon," Yechury said.

"Needless to add, this is every single Indian's money which has been misappropriated by these borrowers, which are mainly big corporates," he said. Yechury said, according to the report, as of end of March this year, Gross Non-performing Assets (GNPAs) of all scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) stood at Rs 5,60,822 crore, 7.71 per cent of their gross advances of Rs 72,73,927 crore.

In addition, the restructured standard advances are at Rs 2,94,729 crore, 4.05 per cent of the gross advances, he said.

While the NPAs have increased by nearly 80 per cent in the last one year, he said it is sad to note that the government's efforts for greater recovery have not shown any corresponding rise in the resolve to recover these.

The Marxist leader also quoted Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) Shashi Kant Sharma as saying a few days back that there is a belief that a large part of these amounts may have been transferred abroad and may never get recovered.

"I urge you as Prime Minister to put into practice an urgent action plan to start recovery of pending loans from the top 100 borrowers," he said.

PTI