Mumbai: Public sector banks (PSBs) wrote off Rs. 2.41 lakh crore worth of loans in over three years, between April 2014 and September 2017. This was disclosed by minister of state for finance Shiv Pratap Shukla said in a written reply in Parliament on Tuesday.
The disclosure came under strong criticism from Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee. "I am shocked to see that at a time, when the farmers in the country are crying and committing suicide for their loan burden and asking for waiver of farmers' loan, the Government of India have not even considered that," the West Bengal chief minister said in a Facebook post.
In his reply to the Rajya Sabha, the union finance minister of state said that writing off non-performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans is a regular exercise conducted by banks to clean up their balance sheet and to achieve taxation efficiency.
"As per Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data on global operations, public sector banks have written-off (including compromise) an amount of Rs. 2,41,911 crore from financial year 2014-15 till September 2017," the minister said.
Borrowers, however, continue to be liable for repayment despite the write-off, the minister added.
Bank write off is the deduction in the value of earnings by the amount of an expense or loss. It means to remove loans from their balance sheets only and reduce the overall tax liability.
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Mumbai (PTI): Veteran screenwriter Salim Khan has been admitted to the ICU of Mumbai's Lilavati hospital on Tuesday, an insider said.
Khan is the writer of movie hits such as "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Zanjeer".
"He (Salim Khan) has been admitted to Lilavati hospital this morning. He is in the ICU," the insider told PTI.
Khan, who co-wrote the many Hindi cinema classics with Javed Akhtar in the 70s, celebrated his 90th birthday in November last year.
Salim Khan's son, superstar Salman Khan, was spotted outside the hospital by paparazzi.
