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Referring to the Rs 11,400-crore scam in which billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi reportedly acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking (LoUs) from state-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB), Tewari said while the “Modi-Choksi tango” was still going on, reports had emerged about another banking fraud.
Vikram Kothari, the owner of Rotomac pens, owes Rs 800 crore to a consortium of Indian banks and was now untraceable, he said. The frauds in the Indian banks are growing every day, the former Union minister said, claiming that according to Reserve Bank of India data, Rs 61,260 crore of banking frauds had taken place in the last five years.
“Data released by the RBI show that Rs 61,260 crore banking frauds have taken place in the last five years, and out of these five years, the BJP-led NDA has been in power for four years. The linkages between these fraudsters and the highest echelons of the BJP raise some very serious questions about the health of the Indian economy,” he told reporters here.
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“And 77% of these NPAs are of leading Indian corporate offices,” he said, accusing the government of being unable to check NPAs and take care of the general public’s money. India occupies the fifth position among 39 countries on NPAs, he added.
An NPA is when a loan taker cannot pay interest for two successive quarters. The Congress has been attacking the government over the fraud involving PNB, which detected a 113.97₹ billion (about Rs 11,400-crore) scam in which jeweller Modi acquired fake LoUs from the bank to secure overseas credit from other lenders.
“It is hilarious that PNB, where this scam happened, won the vigilant award for 2016-17,” Tewari said, adding that this scam raised important question about the lack of transparency in the government.