Bad loans to banks by UPA regime a loot of public money: PM Narendra Modi

Hard-selling his government's pro-poor policies, Prime Minister Narendra Modi listed out initiatives like free cooking gas connections to women, bank accounts to every household, loans to the youth and affordable housing, taken since 2014.

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday launched a blistering attack on the previous Congress- led UPA regime, saying that banks were pressured to give loans worth thousands of crores of rupees to select industrialists in a scam bigger than 2G, coal and Commonwealth Games scams.

Speaking at the 90th AGM of industry association Ficci, Modi said the non performing asset (NPA) or bad loans problem is a "liability" handed over by "economists" in the previous regime.

Hard-selling his government's pro-poor policies, he listed out initiatives like free cooking gas connections to women, bank accounts to every household, loans to the youth and affordable housing, taken since 2014.

Modi said loans extended to select industrialists by pressuring banks was a loot of public money.

Calling it a "scam", he said this was bigger than the Commonwealth Games, 2G telecom spectrum allocation and coal block allocation scams.

Prime Minister also sought to allay fears of bank account holders saying their deposits in banks will be safe and their interests would not be harmed in any way.

He said rumours were being spread by some sections about provisions of the proposed Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance (FRDI) Bill under which the depositors would suffer.

"The government is trying to strengthen the banking system by policy initiatives on a daily basis. But on social media rumours are being spread about the FRDI Bill, which is completely opposite to the reality. We are trying to protect the depositors interest and the banks as well," Modi said.

Rumors regarding FRDI are being spread. Govt is working towards protecting interest and rights of depositors but rumors being spread are totally opposite. Contribution of institutions like FICCI important to dispel such rumors: PM Modi in Delhi pic.twitter.com/Xpia2Q2UFy — ANI (@ANI) December 13, 2017

He was apparently referring to the raging controversy over a bail-in provision in the FRDI Bill under which banks will be allowed to forfeit major portion of deposits of account holders in case of crisis in the financial institution.

Modi further said his government is formulating policies keeping in mind the need of businesses, abolishing archaic and obsolete laws.

Industry, he said, had been long demanding Goods and Services Tax (GST) and the BJP-led government implemented it and introduced measures like anti-profiteering to see that industry passes on the benefit of lower taxes to the people.

More than 30 crore poor have got bank accounts under the Jan Dhan Yojana, Modi said, adding that a study has found that inflation had come down in rural areas where such accounts have been opened.

He said 87 important reforms in sectors including in defence, financial sector and food processing have been taken up in the last three years.

The government has attempted to frame policies keeping in mind the aspirations and needs of the people, he said.

More than 3 crore women have been given free cooking gas LPG connection. After this, fuel inflation has dropped in rural areas, he said.

"We are trying to solve problems of poor after identifying their problems", he said.

Under the Mudra scheme, over Rs 4 lakh crore guarantee- less loans have been given to about 9.75 lakh youth for business, leading to 3 crore new entrepreneurs being created since launch, he said.

With Agency Inputs