Arjun Rathore
Today while I was making my routine monthly Grocery purchases from my nuked waly Bhayia ji, he shared a very interesting and eye opening incidence.
He told me that he availed a loan of Rs. 5,00,000 in the year 2014, which he never paid back.
He continued and narrated that in 2014 one Sharma ji who was the Bank Manager, while purchasing his house hold articles from my shop, told me that he was quite disturbed as for the compliance of the government policy, his higher authorities have allotted a target of twenty loan cases in a month.
And unfortunately despite of a lot of pressure he has not been able to sanction even a single case.
His circle manager is threatening him for non-achievement of the target.
Then all of a sudden he asked me about my annual sales and also enquired about my stocks in hand.
After knowing about my sales and stocks, he requested me to avail this facility of Rs. 5,00,000 working capital (CC) loan, so that he could at least convey to his circle manager that his branch has also opened their account and disbursed one loan case.
He further told me that this loan is collateral free loan without any guarantee
After coming to know that I had not to give any guarantee under the scheme, I immediately agreed to avail this loan facility.
In a couple of days the Bank Manager sahib completed all the formalities of documentation and once I executed those documents, the loan was credited in my account.
Next day I withdrew the whole amount and purchased some karyana goods for Rs. 32,000 and for rest of Rs.4,68,000, I at the rate of Rs. 23,400 purchased 20 tola (240gm) of Gold.
I started some transactions in my loan account and kept on depositing and withdrawing some portion of my daily sale proceeds on occasional basis.
After around six months the Manager Sahib got transferred and I also stopped operations with the bank and completely stopped depositing any of my sale proceeds in the account.
On 31st March 2015 my account turned Non Performing Asset and as per the regulatory directions the application of interest in my account got suspended.
And then I started receiving notices from the bank to deposit the outstanding loan amount of Rs. 528500.
My account was also suit filed for Rs.528500.
From time to time the recovery team of the bank started visiting my shop. Even the branch managers used to come to my shop for recovery.
A couple of time the Manager sahib even visited my home for recovery and told me about his recovery targets and each time I use to tell him the story of recession in the market.
Telephone from the branch, visits of recovery teams and recovery notices from the Lok Adalaat became the routine affair.
And each time my response use to be “Jo karna hai kar lo, mery pass paisye nahi hain”.
Days, Months, Years passed by, one after another branch managers and recovery officers kept on changing and one fine day two offers from the bank came to my shop and offered me OTS (One Time Settlement).
They offered me a waiver of 100% in interest and 25% in principal and told me that by paying the 75% of principal I can get my loan adjusted and closed.
But I didn’t lose the ground and stood firm on my statement “Mery pass paisye nahi hain”.
Bank issued a notice under the newly introduced act of CERFASI, but my advocate advised me not to be afraid of such laws & notices. He assured me that such notices will go to dustbin as these notices have no importance and will be defeated in the court of law.
Last year again the present Bank Manager visited my shop with a new & fresh proposal of 40% waiver in principal.
Still I didn’t lose my ground and kept on repeating “Mery pass paisye nahi hain” .
And this year in March 2021, the bank’s recovery officer again approached me with another fresh offer of 60% waiver to achieve his recovery targets.
In the Lok Adalaat held in March the Judge Sahib tried to pressurized the bank for further reduction in wavier offer .
But this time Bank showed it’s inability to go further down and I too gave a second thought to consider the repayment offer.
I calculated that 60 percent of my principal of Rs. 528500 was Rs. 317100, which meant I had to pay back a sum of Rs. 211400 to my bank to get my loan adjusted.
I went back to operate my bank locker which was also in the same bank and sold 4.40 tola gold at the present rate of Rs. 48000 out of that 20 tolas of gold, which I had bought with the loan amount and got my loan account adjusted and closed.
The remaining 15.60 tolas of gold with present value of Rs. 748800/- is still with me and kept in the safe custody of locker of the same bank.
I have just come to know that the same Manager sahib who sanctioned me the loan in 2014 to achieve his targets has been charge-sheeted by the bank and enquiry has been initiated against him.
Now again our same nuked wali grocery waly Bhayia ji has been approached by another Bank’s Manager Sahab for a collateral free Rs. 10,00,000 of loan to achieve his allotted targets.
This is not a fiction but a true and sad story. Either the under matric Borrower is a smart guy or the post graduate professional banker is a fool. Most of the times these kind of stories send a shiver down the spine on the sad state of affairs and the working of the banking industry in our country. I am still trying to recollect whether it is a sad story of our banks or a Success Story of NPA.
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