by admin | May 25, 2021 | Banking, Corporate, Corporate finance, Corporate Governance, Economy, Finance, News, Politics
New Delhi : The BJP on Wednesday attacked the Congress-led UPA government for blindly giving loans and weakening the banks due to which their losses increased from Rs 18,000 crore to Rs 53,000 crore, and said the NDA government brought transparency and forced people to repay their loans.
“Swachh Bharat Mission of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is not restricted only to the cleanliness of courtyards but is also about the cleanliness in our economic system,” Union Minister Piyush Goyal told a press conference here.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said that after assuming the office in 2014, the Modi government inherited an extremely fragile banking sector.
“But the Prime Minister and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley took a wise decision not to bring any such white paper and they responsibly ran the government and brought sustainable solution to only strengthen the economy,” Goyal said.
Slamming the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government for giving loans without doing the fact-check of projects, Goyal said: “The UPA government started distributing loans from 2006 and the procedure went on till 2014. The bank losses increased from Rs 18,000 crore to Rs 53,000 crore in those years.”
“Due to blindly giving of loans overcapacity was created,” he said.
Citing example of the Indian Bank, Goyal said: “Same situation of the non-performing assets (NPAs) was prevalent when Atal Bihari Vajpayeeji’s government had come to power. And at that time, he brought the transparency and the Indian Bank is running in profit.”
“And today, we have also brought transparency in the NPA loans and tried to resolve the entire mess that Congress gave us,” he said.
Attacking the Congress-led government, Goyal said: “UPA blindly gave out loans and weakened the banks, but the Modi government ushered in transparency and forced all the responsible individuals to repay the loans.”
“In case they couldn’t repay the loans, we tried to resolve through Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code,” he said.
The Railway and Coal Minister also said that during the UPA government, a lot of big people took loans without taking into account the responsibility that comes along with it.
“But it is Modi government which has acted tough with these people and forced them to pay back,” he said.
Goyal further said that the strictness of the government also led to the implementation of the Fugitive Law, under which the properties of the defaulters are attached.
This is the first government which has taken strict action against the rich people to repay loan, he underlined.
Citing the achievements of his government, Goyal said: “Our government implemented the Benami Act. We brought GST instead of 40 different taxes,” the BJP leader added.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Economy, Finance, Markets, News, Politics
Imphal : Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh on Wednesday promised soft loans to thousands of women street vendors who have taken over virtually all the footpaths and other available space in Imphal.
“This will enable the women vendors to earn livelihood through some other means of earning, far away from the city,” he said on the sidelines of a function commissioning a garbage truck donated by the State Bank of India to the Imphal Municipal Corporation.
In Manipur, all markets are exclusively run by women.
Biren Singh said: “The squatting women vendors are obstructing traffic and pedestrians in the fast growing city. With the bank loans the vendors could start weaving, rearing of ducks and hens and the like and do the business elsewhere.
“In such an eventuality, there will be no overcrowding in the city,” he added.
This is the second attempt by the government to clear away the street vendors.
Some months back, Minister T. Shyamkumar, who is in charge of the Imphal Municipal Corporation, had evicted the street vendors as he had planned to have a clean city. But the women returned to their respective places within hours.
Shyamkumar, who was present in Wednesday’s function, said: “We seek the cooperation of the women vendors and appeal to them not to scatter fruit and vegetable peels on the streets.”
Women vendors sharply reacted to the Chief Minister’s suggestion that the women vendors take loans to embrace new businesses.
Fish vendor Pishakmacha said she made purchases from a number of fishermen coming to Imphal and ran her family “with the meagre profit” she made. “I cannot make a living by rearing hens or ducks.”
Nungshitombi Laishram is a greengrocer who reaches Imphal daily by 3 a.m. “I am over 70 years of age and I cannot do any other work,” she said.
Piyari Lisam, who sells cookies and sweets under a flyover, said: “Street vendors are an evil necessity in all cities. The corporation has recognised us. The Chief Minister should not speak irresponsible things.”
In the past, an alternative market was allotted to the women vendors but they refused to shift to the new place, saying it was customer-unfriendly.
Another vendor, Lukamani, spoke menacingly: “The BJP government has not learnt any lesson from history. The mighty British could not browbeat us even after bayoneting the women vendors.”
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Banking, Corporate, Corporate finance, Economy, Markets, News
Chennai : The Centre’s Rs 2.11 trillion recapitalisation for public sector banks though a welcome move, the focus should not be lost on recovering the loans by allowing the banks to take a “haircut” (a euphemism for loan write offs), said a top leader of All India Bank Employees’ Association (Aibea).
“The recapitalisations announced by the central government on Tuesday is welcome. The government should take care that such loan profligacy to corporates is not repeated at the cost of tax payers.
“It is time the government starts fixing responsibility for bad decisions taken in the guise of commercial decisions,” C.H. Venkatachalam, General Secretary, Aibea told IANS on Thursday.
He also said it was high time the top government bank executives –Chairmen, Managing Directors, Executive Directors — were also brought under service/conduct/disciplinary rules.
According to Venkatachalam, lack of capital and the non-recovery of the corporate loans were afflicting the banks.
He said the non-performing loans (NPL) of the government banks is over Rs 800,000 crore and focus should be on recovering the same than going in for write-offs on the back of fresh funds infusion announced by the government.
Referring to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s comments that steps would be taken so that further NPL was not created Venkatachalam said: “It is time to fix accountability on those sanctioning loans.
“The credit committee and the Board of Directors should be made accountable for their decisions. They should not be allowed to escape under the guise of commercial decision for sanctioning loans without prudence.”
According to him, bad loans in the banks, particularly, the big ticket accounts were a potential zone for corruption and there was no defined regulation to take action on top executives like Chairmen, Managing Directors and Executive Directors of government-owned banks.
“The top officials are not government by common Officers Conduct Rules,” Venkatachalam said.
“There should be separate conduct rules for the top executives as they are dealing with tax payers monies,” Venkatachalam said.
Terming the current procedure to fix responsibility on top executives of government banks as cumbersome, Venkatachalam said: “A transparent and effective rule is to be evolved to deal with the complaints against these officials.”
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Emerging Businesses
New Delhi : (IANS) Monitoring the progress of various rural development schemes, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has instructed officials to also monitor loans extended to rural self-help groups (SHGs) through the Aadhaar scheme.
Three crore households have so far been linked to SHGs under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana that targets poverty alleviation through sustainable livelihood, NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Aayog officials told the prime minister.
“He asked for due monitoring of the loans given to SHGs, using Aadhaar. He emphasised that loans must reach the intended beneficiaries, for this scheme to be successful,” an official said.
The NITI Aayog officials on Monday gave a presentation to the prime minister on the progress of the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana and the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY).
Official figures indicate that an average of 91 km of rural roads have been built daily in the financial year 2015-16, resulting in addition of 30,500 km to rural road length. As a result, 6,500 habitations were connected.
“The prime minister was told about the use of innovative best practices in the PMGSY, including the use of geographic information system and space imagery for planning and monitoring, as well as citizen grievance redressal through app ‘Meri Sadak’,” the official said.
“The prime minister has directed for stringent quality monitoring of the roads built under the scheme. He said quality checks should be made at the material procurement, construction and maintenance stages,” he added.
