Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday accused Congress leader Rahul Gandhi of making false claims on “wilful defaulters, bad loans and write-offs”, calling them an attempt to “mislead people in a brazen manner” and sensationalise facts. 

While Sitharaman accused  Rahul of “trying to mislead people in a brazen manner”, Javadekar advised the former Congress chief to "take tuition" from his party colleague and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

He said he was taken aback by the Congress leader's comment that Modi government has waived off Rs 65,000 crore of loan defaulters.

“@RahulGandhi should take tuition from @PChidambaram_IN on the difference between “write off” and “waive off”. @narendramodi govt has not waived off any loan. “Write off” is a normal accounting process. It doesn’t stop recovery or action against defaults,” Javadekar said.

“Writing off is process to show depositors correct pictures of bank. It doesn’t stop banks from taking actions and pursuing recovery. We’ve seen how Nirav Modi’s assets are seized and auctioned. Mallya has been left with no choice but to come back as his appeal in HC has been rejected,” he said.

Sitharaman accused Congress leader of “trying to mislead people in a brazen manner”. She also listed the cases of Mehul Choksi and Vijay Mallya and said that the Narendra Modi-led BJP government is pursuing these willful defaulters.

Rahul had said on Twitter that the government waived loans worth Rs 6.66 lakh crore since 2014 till September 2019. The former Congress president said he had asked in Parliament the names of the top 50 bank loan defaulters in the country, but the finance minister did not answer. Now, the RBI has given out the list which includes Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and many of BJP’s “friends”, he said.

Sitharaman, in a series of tweets accused Rahul  of sensationalising facts by taking them out of context. Highlighting that between 2009-10 and 2013-14, scheduled commercial banks had written off Rs 1,45,226 crore, she quipped, “Wished Gandhi consulted former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on what this writing-off was about”.

She said provisions are made for Non-Performing Assets according to a four-year provisioning cycle laid down by the RBI. “Upon full provisioning being done, banks write-off the fully provided NPA but continue to pursue recovery against the borrower. No loan is waived off,” she wrote.

The Finance Minister said that wilful defaulters were beneficiaries of ‘phone banking’ under the UPA regime and the Modi government is chasing them to recover the dues.

She also referred to media reports quoting former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan as having said that a large number of bad loans originated in the period 2006-2008 and “too many loans were made to well-connected promoters who have a history of defaulting on their loans”.

“Useful to recall the words of Raghuram Rajan: “A large number of bad loans originated in the period 2006-2008…Too many loans were made to well-connected promoters who have a history of defaulting on their loans…Public sector bankers continued financing promoters even while private sector banks were getting out. RBI could have raised more flags about the quality of lending…” Raghuram Rajan (said)… From 2015, PSBs (Public Sector Banks) were asked by the government to check all NPAs >50 crores for wilful default,” Finance Minister responded to Rahul Gandhi on Twitter.

The Finance Minister also explained how properties belonging to fugitives Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and Vijay Mallya have been attached by the Modi Government after they defaulted on the loans.

Sitharaman maintained that immovable and movable properties belonging to fugitive Nirav Modi worth more than Rs 2,387 crores have been attached or seized, including foreign attachments of Rs 961.47 crore. “The auction of luxury items belonging to Nirav Modi has yielded for Rs 53.45 Crore. He is in prison in the UK,” she said