Arun Jaitley says on Tuesday that writing-off of loans was done for tax benefit as well as capital optimisation
A sum of Rs 81,683 crore was written off by public sector banks (PSBs) in 2016-17, finance minister Arun Jaitley said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.
Jaitley said on Tuesday that writing-off of loans was done for tax benefit as well as capital optimisation. He, however, clarified that borrowers of such loans continued to be liable for repayment.
According to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines and policy approved by the bank Boards, non-performing loans, including, inter-alia, those in respect of which full provisioning has been made on completion of four years are removed from the balance-sheet of the bank concerned by way of write-offs.
The amount written off included Rs 20,339 crore by the State Bank of India (as per RBI data on global operations), Jaitley said.
The amount written off (including through compromise) by PSBs stood at Rs 27,231 crore during 2012-13 and Rs 28,781 crore during 2017-18.
During 2017-18, agriculture credit worth Rs 867,035 crore was also disbursed.
Jaitley said the recovery of dues is an ongoing process that takes place under legal mechanisms, which include, inter-alia, Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, Debt Recovery Tribunals and Lok Adalats.
In another reply, Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla said in the five-financial years since April 1, 2013, as many as 13,643 cases of frauds in banks involving an aggregate amount of Rs 52,717 crore were reported.
On a query regarding benami deals, Shukla said over 1,000 properties have been attached provisionally under the Prohibition of Benami Properties Transactions Act till January 31, 2018.
"These include plots of land, flats, shops, jewellery, vehicles, deposits in bank account, fixed deposits. The value of properties under provisional attachment is over Rs 3,800 crore," he added.
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