Samajwadi Party State president Rabi Behera submitted a memorandum to the CBI Regional Director here on Monday demanding a probe by the Central investigating agency into the alleged Rs 2,300-crore loan waiver scam by Indian Metals and Ferro Alloys limited (IMFA).
Behera in the memorandum alleged that IMFA vice-chairman Baijayant Panda has used his political links as the BJD leader of the House in Rajya Sabha to get a loan waiver of Rs 2,300 crore from 10 banks for his company.
Behera further alleged that the Punjab National Bank which is now battling an Rs 11,400 crore scam, waived off Rs 83.87 crore to IMFA. Similarly, the Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) waived Rs 1,525.86 crore out of Rs 2002.55 crore, the Industrial Finance Corporation of India waived Rs 138.59 crore out of Rs 188.36 crore, ICICI Bank limited Rs 136.23 crore out of Rs 173.55 crore, Indian Overseas Bank waived Rs 89.69 crore out of Rs 102.33 crore, Vijaya Bank waived Rs 103.30 crore out of Rs 115.88 crore, Canara Bank waived Rs 99.92 crore out of Rs 114.27 crore, Andhra bank waived Rs 49.45 crore out of Rs 58.24 crore, Central Bank waived off Rs 59.11 crore out of Rs 67.59 crore and Union Bank has waived off Rs 51.87 crore out of a loan of Rs 56.73 crore, he alleged.
He further alleged that his loan waiver of Rs 2,300 crore has come at the cost of honest tax-payers money. Panda has used the Rs 2,300 crore waived off to him to draw huge salaries for himself and his family. According to the 2016-17 55th annual report of IMFA, he has drawn a salary of more than Rs 7.66 crore as its vice chairman in just one year.
He further stated that it is legally untenable that a company which is today earning crores and crores in profits used all dishonest tricks in the trade to get themselves a loan waiver and perpetuated a fraud on the tax-payers of this country. This legal fraud should be investigated as this also has a hand in the larger bank fraud that has been perpetuated on the banks of India. One of the largest beneficiaries of such ill-gotten bank loan waiver is IMFA and its vice chairman Panda, stated Behera.
Behera further alleged that Panda as a MP used his political office to perpetuate this fraud on the honest tax-payers of the country. Ten banks financed his fraud of Rs 2,300 crore in form of loan waiver only due to his political position in the Parliament.
He used his access to the power corridors to finance this fraud and used all means to ensure that the Rs 2,300 crore is written off so that he and his company can enjoy while the poor tax-payer continues to pay for the luxuries of his company and him.
Besides, a few years back, the Orissa High Court had admitted a PIl challenging the action of nationalised banks in waiving Rs 2,300 crore of loan to a single business family of the State, the IMFA company.
The petitioner had questioned as to how the nationalised banks and financial institutions have waived such a huge amount of loan of a company whose net worth (as per its own admission in March 2003) had been completely eroded and pegged at negative Rs 2712.12 crore. This is nothing but a broad daylight robbery of public money by the banks done at the behest of official power and political patronage.
The petition also questioned why the IMFA was not registered under the Board of Industrial and Financial Reconstructions (BIFR) under the provisions of Sick Industrial Companies (Special Provision) Act when its entire net worth was eroded in 2003, said the petitioner.
The Samajwadi Party announced that it would hold a demonstration before the Regional Office of CBI here on Tuesday demanding a probe into the Punjab National Bank scam, the roots of which extend to Odisha. In their response, the IMFA authorities reportedly stated that their company got the benefit of a credit restructuring scheme that also helped several other firms.
A case in the matter had been filed in the Orissa High Court in 2007 which was rejected, they further said.