Breaking his silence on the Rs 11,400 crore Punjab National Bank loan fraud, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said his government will not spare those who have swindled public money by flouting every possible norm in the banking system.
"This government will act strongly against those indulging in financial irregularities and taking advantage of the system," Modi said 10 days after the country's biggest banking fraud was unearthed in the second largest state-owned bank in the country.
He also asked the monitoring agencies to do their work with utmost faithfulness and responsibility.
"I appeal all the people who have responsibilities to maintain ethics and rules in financial institutions that they should work with great responsibility.
The government will not tolerate any lapses in the system," Modi said in his keynote address in the Economic Times Global Business Summit here.
He also used the opportunity to once again ask the economist and think tank to start debating on the "positive economic impact" of simultaneous elections in the country.
"In Economic Summits like this, I feel we should also discuss the simultaneous election of Lok Sabha and state Assemblies and its positive impact on the nation's economy," he said.
Giving the performance report card of four years of the NDA government at the Centre, he said the country has progressed on each and every macroeconomic parameter be it inflation, GDP growth, interest rates FDI inflows or controlling current account and fiscal deficits.
Modi said before his government came to power, exports and import suffered from over-invoicing.
"SIT report said imports, exports were suffering from over-invoicing. the NDA government has taken stringent steps to address this issue and we are seeing signs of improvement in export numbers," Modi said.