Mallya was not given a 'rupee benefit' under Modi govt: Jaitley

Insisting that Vijay Mallya was not given even "a rupee benefit" under the Modi government, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday said loans were reportedly given to the businessman during the previous UPA rule through intervention of the North Block, a reference to the Finance Ministry.

Replying to a debate on Budget in Lok Sabha, he blamed the previous UPA dispensation for the massive NPAs of the banks, saying lending of "indiscriminate" loans to select people and industries during that period was the root cause of the problem. "Aapke dwara kiye gaye karmon ka byaj hum de rahe hain (we are paying for your misdeeds)," he said.

In an obvious reference to Rahul Gandhi's allegations that the current government had given a benefit of Rs 1,200 crore to Vijay Mallya, Jaitley insisted that not "a rupee benefit" was given to the businessman by any bank since the NDA came to power in May 26, 2014.

As per the official figure, gross NPAs of public sector banks rose to Rs 6,30,323 crore by September 2016.

"The percentage (of NPAs) has not been increased because we have started giving much higher unaccountable loans. Most of these are loans given during 2007-08-09 period when the boom period of the economy was there," he said.