Excelsior Correspondent
Jammu, Oct 5: All India Bank Officers’ Association (AIBOA) has alleged that Indian banks are under tremendous pressure with regard to the non-recovery of loans’ from influential borrowers.
Addressing a press conference here today AIBOA general secretary S Nagarajan said, “We demand that the Government of India must enact with utmost urgency to recover the bad loans which halt the progress of the Public Sector Banking System.”
The trade union leader also asked the Centre to shelve the idea of the dilution of equity below 51 per cent leading to privatisation of the Public Sector banks. He was here in the town to have a detailed meeting with the officials of banking sectors and gather first hand information regarding grievances and future plans of the private sector banks.
Nagarajan said that the Indian Banking system is reeling under serious pressure of ‘non-recovery of loans’ from the influential and bad borrowers. He said that Vijay Mallaya (Kingfisher owner), is one of the biggest defaulters in the country who has not paid a sum of Rs 7,000 crore ‘bad loan’ in which 13 banks were involved.
“Whenever we try to bring a pressure from the judicial forum, Mr Mallaya makes all effort so that he is not declared as a big defaulter,” he asserted. Public Sector Banks in India right from the date of nationalisation from 1969 up to August 2015 handle a total business mix of Rs 1,56,25,90,000 crore with deposits of Rs 89,59,70,000 crore and advances of Rs 66,66,20,000 crore. “The money locked up in the bad loans under different categories included Rs 3 lakhs crore declared by the RBI, restructured corporate loan of Rs 6 lakh crore, coal allocation related loan of Rs 5 lakh crore and infrastructural loan of Rs 7 lakh crore,” Mr Nagarajan said.
AIBOA general secretary further said that recent plan of revamping Public Sector Banks under the name of ”Indradhanush” was not acceptable under which retired persons have been appointed as non-executive Chairmen of these banks. “Government is trying to privatise the banking system but it will not benefit the nation,” he added and said the Centre is taking no concrete steps to recover the bad loan from the defaulters.