New Delhi: Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra attacked the government on Friday over an RBI report showing bank frauds have gone up by 15 per cent year-on-year in 2018-19, asking who is the guarantor allowing such "big bank frauds".
The number of cases of frauds reported by banks saw a jump of 15 per cent year-on-year basis in 2018-19, with the amount involved increasing by 73.8 per cent in the year, the Reserve Bank of India's annual report showed.
In FY19, banking sector reported 6,801 frauds involving Rs 71,542.93 crore as against 5,916 cases involving Rs 41,167.04 crore reported in 2017-18.
"Country's biggest banking institution RBI is saying that bank frauds are increasing right under the nose of the government. In 2018-19, this theft has increased," Priyanka Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi. "Banks have been duped of Rs 72,000 crore. But, who is the guarantor who is allowing such big bank frauds to occur," the Congress general secretary asked.
Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala also hit out at the government over the rising number of bank frauds. "'Loot & Scoot' in 'New India' as a complicit BJP govt looks the other way and common man is taxed!" he said.
Congress urges govt to declare financial emergency in country
New Delhi: The Congress on Friday demanded that a financial emergency be declared in the country and a white paper be released on the "shrinking economy and rising frauds".
Congress spokespersons Jaiveer Shergill and Gaurav Vallabh accused the BJP government of destroying the credibility of the country's economy and banking system and demanded that it should declare the names of wilful defaulters, along with the details of their non-performing assets (NPAs).
"The Congress demands that a financial emergency should be declared in the country," Shergill told a press conference here.
"We reiterate that the BJP government should release a white paper on the shrinking economy and rising frauds," he said.
"It is getting clearer by the day that the country is heading towards a major recessionary phase. This is a classic case of recession under expansionary trends, as whenever there are three continuous quarters of growth recession (reduction in growth quarter-on-quarter), the chances of slipping into a full-blown recession are significantly higher," Vallabh said.
He added that once the June 2019 quarter numbers were
announced, it would be clear that India was witnessing a reduction in growth for five consecutive
quarters.
Vallabh said the problems that this phenomenon put forth were that natural recovery did not occur and the country had to solely rely on monetary policy actions, while the short-term stimulus remained short-term and only helped in assuaging wounds.
"The questions we want to ask the government are what is its response to the prolonged reduction in growth? Does it have any clue of what is actually wrong and who's responsible for the same," Shergill said.
As a responsible opposition, the Congress wanted the government to immediately issue a white paper on the state of economy, he added.
"Rather than a band-aid approach, we want substantial solution to this state of the economy," the Congress spokesperson said, wondering why the government would not accept that the country was witnessing a recession and it would only be revived when a private and public investment cycle would start in the economy.
Shergill alleged a "systematic decimation of the economy" with a worsening distress in the farm sector, factories and finance, adding that only frauds, fake promises and aggression on the system were rampant in the country
under the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) rule.
He also alleged that frauds in the banking system shot up by 74 per cent to Rs 71,543 crore in the 2018-19 financial year, compared to
frauds worth Rs 41,167 crore
committed in the 2017-18 financial year.
"RBI data has revealed that 27,125 cases of bank frauds of a whopping Rs 1.74 lakh crore (Rs 1,74,753 lakh crore) were reported in the past five years. Is this amount similar to recapitalisation of banks? Why, suddenly now, so many cases of frauds are out? Is it an indirect way of looting taxpayers' money?," the Congress spokesperson asked.