Bank of Baroda has written off loans worth Rs 44,482 crore of 144 big borrowers with over Rs 100 crore over the past ten years, of which only 25% has been recovered to date, but refused to disclose the names of these big defaulters. There was a lot of uproar over the technical write-off of bank loans, and it was said that technical write-off does not mean loan waiver, recovery of technically written-off loans continues. RTI activist Vivek Velankar requested for the following information from the Bank of Baroda under Right to Information.
1. List of loan takers’ names whose loans above 100 crores are technically written off during each financial year from 2013-14 till 2021-22, along with a write-off amount.
2. For each of the above-mentioned loan accounts, how much recovery was made till 31st March 2022 even though they were technically written off from books.
3. Total amount of write-offs done of the loan takers whose loans above 100 crores are technically written off during each financial year from 2013-14 till 2021-22.
4. How much recovery was made of the above-mentioned loans till 31st March 2022 every year even though they were technically written off from books?
5. Total amount of write-offs done of the loan takers whose loans below one crore are technically written off during each financial year from 2013-14 till 2021-22.
6. How much recovery was made of the above-mentioned loans till 31st March 2022 every year even though they were technically written off from books?
Some of the information provided by the bank shows that Bank of Baroda has written off loans worth Rs 44482 crore of 144 large borrowers with over Rs 100 crore outstanding in the last ten years, of which only Rs 11124 crore (25%) has been recovered till date. The bank has refused to disclose the names of defaulters on the pretext of personal information. In response to how many defaulters with less than Rs 1 crore were written off, the bank has informed us that it has not written off the loans of any such small defaulters. The bank is not giving the same justice to the big defaulters and the small defaulters.
It is unfortunate that despite the implementation of strict laws including NCLT for a long time, recovery of large defaulters is nominal.
RTI activist, Vivek Velankar of Sajjan Nagarik Manch said, “It is unfathomable that a bank that publishes an advertisement in the newspaper to auction off the property of a common man if he defaults on a loan of a few lakhs remembers the privacy of the names of those whose loans have been written off and whose loans are over 100 crores.”
