BJD MP Baijayant Jay Panda on Thursday said the 12 MPs who had asked him to pay off his family-run company’s debts before urging them to give up their food subsidy in Parliament canteen were trying to distract from the issue.
“I was disappointed that in your above-mentioned letter you have tried to distract from the issue by dragging in recycled allegations against me and my relatives from decades ago,” said Panda in his reply to the 12 MPs from left and Congress who asked him to first pay back the thousands of crores of rupees worth of debts to banks.
However, Panda did not answer to the specific issues about debts and loan waivers raised by the 12 MPs. The MPs said that one of the companies ICCl got huge loan waiver of `2,300 crore in 2005 and another company IMFA was in the 2013 list of top 20 bank defaulters.
“Every few years, either during elections or when I advocate a cause that goes against some vested interests and steps on some toes, I get attacked,” said Panda in a separate note on the allegations about his family run companies.
“In the 1980s, one of two operating companies in the family business in which I inherited shares (along with several other relatives) became sick due to dispute/unavailability of raw materials. There was no malfeasance whatsoever, but due to non-availability of raw materials, the company (ICCl) operated far below capacity and also remained closed for long periods. Years later in 199 the Supreme Court ruled in its favour and it began operating again after a Corporate Debt Restructuring. The CDR was as per norms and involved partial debt wirte down (mostly penal interest, but not other components like forex fluctuation or principal). This was matched with shareholders agreeing to forfeit 50 per cent of their shares and also committing 85 per cent of the earnings of the other group company (IMFA) for the CDR rehabilitation package. Subsequently, the restructured debt was repaid and the two companies were merged,” said Panda. The Industrialist MP also put out his version on his website on the allegations on land related and electricity dues waiver issue.
left MPs MB Rajesh, KN Balagopal, A Sampath, CP Narayanan, PK Biju, Ritabrata Banerjee and Congress MPs Mullapally Ramachandran, KC Venugopal, MI Shanavas are the signatories of the letter to the Industrialist MP Jay Panda. Joy Abraham and Jose K Mani (Kerala Congress) and NK Premachandran (RSP) also signed the letter.