Congress responds to FM’s tweet on loan write off, says it weakens Bank architecture fiscally, imprudently

New Delhi: Congress party on Wednesday responded to Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s tweets on loan write off.
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman earlier in the day had refuted Congress MP Rahul Gandhi's claims on corporate loan write off, adding that the Congress party has misled people over this.

The matter pertains to recent RBI reply in an RTI that outstanding loans amounting to Rs 68,607 crore of top 50 wilful bank loan defaulters in the country have been technically written off till September 30, 2019. These include firms of fugitives like Mehul Choksi and Vijay Mallya.

Sitharaman in a series of tweets said that both Gandhi and Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala have tried to mislead people over the issue.

Surjewala, responding to the tweets asked,  “Why has Modi Govt written off Bank Loans worth ₹6,66,000 Cr between 2014-15 & 2019-20?”

He also questioned if the RBI’s RTI reply dated 24th April, 2020 of Bank loans write off of Rs 68,607 Cr wrong or right?

“Why is Modi Govt righting off Bank Loans of absconders & fraudsters like Nirav Modi+Mehul Choksi(₹8,048 CR), Jatin Mehta(₹6,038 CR), Mallya(₹1,943 CR) & others as per RBI’s RTI reply of 24/4/2020?, the congress spokesperson wrote, asking “Who permitted such huge write offs of Bank loans of defaulters & why?”.

He further added that cleaning the “Banks of people’s money by righting off loans of absconders & fraudsters is not called ‘cleaning the system’.

Absconding dimantaire Choksi's company Gitanjali Gems tops the list of these defaulters with a whopping amount of Rs 5,492 crore, according to the list.

Mallya's Kingfisher Airlines figures in the list at number 9, with outstanding of Rs 1943 crore which have been technically written off by the banks.