When was the last time you were harassed by banking authorities for delaying your EMI for loans that you may have procured? Such instances take place on a regular basis, and why not? If you procure a loan from any bank, you should be in a position to make the payments as and when agreed upon.?
However, in yet another revelation that displays the double standards of Indian banks in dealing with the commoners and the rich, an RTI reply, furnished by the RBI to CNN-News18, it has been learnt that the State Bank Of India has declared as unrecoverable outstanding worth Rs 37,700 crore that 33 borrowers, with loans of Rs 500 crore and more, owed to it.?
The State Of Bank is the largest bank in the country and the reported figures are till March 31, 2019.
As per the report, a total of Rs 2.75 lakh crore was written off for entities that borrowed Rs 100 crore or more from scheduled commercial banks. The latest statistics divulge that Rs 67,600 crore were declared as bad debts for those given loans of Rs 500 crore and more, reported CNBC TV 18.?
The RTI reply further revealed that as many as 980 borrowers have been enlisted by the RBI whose debts of more than Rs 100 crore each had to be written off by the banks. Out of these, 220 accounts, which make up more than one-fifth of the total number, belonged to SBI. On an average, Rs 348 crore was waived off in respect of each such account.
There have been numerous reports of farmers and the poor living amidst abysmal situation with little means to sustain their livelihoods end up committing suicide after failing to pay their bank loans.?
It is all the more disappointing that while the plight of the poor and the suffering have taken a backseat on the priorities of our banking sector, the rich who have defaulted hundreds of crores get an easy pass by the banking authorities.?
That this is happening at a time when the country is gripped in an economic slowdown and is facing job losses at an unprecedented scale is more worrisome.?