Ruling, Oppn benches exchange barbs over banking system in country

New Delhi, Mar 16: The Lok Sabha on Monday witnessed a heated argument between the Treasury and Opposition benches over the banking system with the latter, including Congress, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Left, walking out for Congress member Rahul Gandhi not given full opportunity to ask questions on the subject.
During the Question Hour, Mr Gandhi sought information from the government about those who did not repay the debt of banks. When given a chance to ask supplementary questions, he said that the government has not given the list of the top 50 such defaulters in the written reply that they had asked for.
He was supported by the DMK and Left parties. The country’s economy is going through a tough phase, Mr Gandhi said, adding that the Banks are failing. The biggest reason for this is that banks are fleeing by stealing money from banks that are not intentionally repaying loans, he alleged.
At this, Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur accused the Congress Member of asking “poorly sighted”
questions. He held the previous government responsible for the state of the banking system saying the present Modi government has made a lot of improvement in it.
He said that senior members like Mr Gandhi want to question the banking system at a time when the Finance Minister is assuring the country that the entire money of the people in Yes Bank is safe.
It is pertinent to understand what happened, when it happened and how it happened, Mr Thakur said, adding that of the gross loans granted between 2010-2014, 0.64 per cent turned into ‘bad loans’. This percentage came down to 0.18 per cent in FY 2018-19. It has declined further in the year 2019-20. It was the Modi government that conducted an asset quality review of banks’ loans and brought out the status of real non-performing assets.
(UNI)