Bring out white paper on banking system: Congress to NDA

The Congress on Sunday claimed "fraudsters" were linked to the "highest echelons" of the BJP-led NDA and urged the government to bring out a white paper on the banking system which it said had witnessed scams involving over Rs 61,000 crore in the last five years.

"Bank frauds are tumbling out of the closet faster than you can say Jack Robinson," Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said, claiming that another banking fraud was now out in the open.

Referring to the Rs 11,400-crore scam in which billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi reportedly acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking (LoUs) from state-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB), Tewari said while the "Modi-Choksi tango" was still going on, reports had emerged about another banking fraud.

Vikram Kothari, the owner of Rotomac pens, owes Rs 800 crore to a consortium of Indian banks and was now untraceable, he said.

The frauds in the Indian banks are growing every day, the former Union minister said, claiming that according to Reserve Bank of India data, Rs 61,260 crore of banking frauds had taken place in the last five years.

"Data released by the RBI show that Rs 61,260 crore banking frauds have taken place in the last five years, and out of these five years, the BJP-led NDA has been in power for four years. The linkages between these fraudsters and the highest echelons of the BJP raise some very serious questions about the health of the Indian economy," he told reporters here.

"Therefore, the Congress party demands a white paper on the Indian banking system from the government," he said, adding that the BJP-led NDA should direct all banks to publish and declare the name of fraudsters and details related to NPAs ( non-performing assets).

The total NPAs of all public and private banks were worth Rs 8,36,782 crore as of September, 2017.

"And 77% of these NPAs are of leading Indian corporate offices," he said, accusing the government of being unable to check NPAs and take care of the general public's money. India occupies the fifth position among 39 countries on NPAs, he added.

An NPA is when a loan taker cannot pay interest for two successive quarters. The Congress has been attacking the government over the fraud involving PNB, which detected a $1.77 billion (about Rs 11,400-crore) scam in which jeweller Modi acquired fake LoUs from the bank to secure overseas credit from other lenders.

"It is hilarious that PNB, where this scam happened, won the vigilant award for 2016-17," Tewari said, adding that this scam raised important question about the lack of transparency in the government.