West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee (Express photo)
CM Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday asked why the Centre was not ready to disclose details of credit information by a public sector bank in Parliament.
A Facebook post by Mamata read, “…I am shocked to see that at a time, when the farmers in the country are crying and committing suicide for their loan burden and asking for waiver of farmers’ loan, the Government of India has not even considered that. On the contrary, the Government of India has decided to write off Non-Performing Assets of public sector banks to the tune of Rs.2,41,911 crore from the Financial Year 2014-15 till September 2017. This is unbelievable. We raised the issue of NPAs right at the time of demonetisation. Now the cat is out of the bag and reality bites.”
In a written reply to questions put by MP Ritabrata Banerjee, who has been suspended by CPM, in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, the Centre said between financial year 2014-15 and September 2017, public sector banks had written off Rs 2.41 lakh crore loans to corporate bodies. It refused to name defaulters, citing a section of RBI Act which prohibits it from disclosing credit information.
“Whom is the Government trying to protect? We demand immediate disclosure of the complete list of defaulters of public sector banks, whose loans have been written off. Is it not a big, big, big scam?” the post said.