No record of loans given to cos before 2014, says govt

New Delhi: In a surprising revelation, the government on Monday told the Parliament that it has no record of companies whom loans were sanctioned/disbursed by public and private sector banks prior to 2014 and which later turned non-performing assets (NPA).

In reply to a question asked by BJP MP Uday Pratap Singh, who represents Hoshangabad parliamentary seat in Madhya Pradesh, Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Karad told the House that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has informed that it does not maintain information based on the date of sanction or disbursement or details of companies to whom loans were sanctioned/disbursed by banks prior to 2014 and which turned NPA.

The parliamentarian also wanted to know to from the minister whether top 100 companies of the country, including Kingfisher Airline, Geetanjali Gems, and Crest Steel and Power, etc are also included in the list of defaulters.

Notably, absconding businessman Vijay Mallya's defunct Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) had a total loan default of about Rs 9,091.40 crore at the end of November 2015 to a group of 17 banks. In 2014, the United Bank of India had announced Mallya as a 'wilful defaulter', which was followed by Punjab National Bank and SBI too.