Even as the much heated debate regarding the privatisation of PSU banks rages on, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday told Rajya Sabha in a written reply that public sector banks had written off Rs 81,863 crore worth of loans in the financial year ending March-17. Out of the total amount of Rs 81,683 crore; Rs 20,339 crore belonged to India’s biggest lender State Bank of India. In FY18, the amount written off by Public Sector Banks upto September-17 was Rs 28,781 crore. Arun Jaitley said that the loans written off for tax benefit as well as capital optimisation, and the borrowers of such loans continue to be liable for repayment. The finance minister also adds that the recovery of dues from borrowers happens on an ongoing basis under the laws, and therefore write-offs do not benefit the borrowers. Further, in the current year, agriculture credit worth Rs 8,67,035 crore has been disbursed.
While the ongoing scam in the Punjab National Bank continues to get bigger, currently over rs 13,000 crore, in a reply in Rajya Sabha , Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla said that in the last five financial years starting from April 1, 2013 as many as 13,643 cases of frauds in banks have been reported totalling to an aggregate amount of Rs 52,717 crore. Responding to a query On a query regarding benami deals, Shiv Pratap Shukla said that over 1,000 properties have been attached provisionally under the Prohibition of Benami Properties Transactions Act till January 31, 2018.
Following the scam in Punjab National Bank, Corporate Affairs Minister Arun Jaitley’s had proposed to set up a new audit watchdog NFRA (National Financial Reporting Authority) which got approval from the Union Cabinet last week. NFRA is set to replace the existing National Advisory Committee on Accounting Standards (NACAS) an extension of the already existing ICAI. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the new watchdog does not seek to interfere in the professional autonomy of the institute or its functioning.