PM Modi blames phone-a-loan scam under UPA regime for NPA mess

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday accused the previous Congress-led UPA government of running a phone-a-loan scam where loans were handed out to select businessmen at the behest of namdars (dynasts), creating huge amounts of non-performing assets in the banking sector.

“The Congress had put the economy on a landmine. Our government brought out the true picture of NPAs and the scam of the previous government,” he said.

Citing figures, Modi said all banks in the country had lent a total of Rs 18 trillion between 1947 and 2008, but the figure surged to Rs 52 trillion in just six years — from 2008 to 2014.

“Loans were given on phone calls made by namdars,” he said without taking anyone’s name. “Take away, Modi will come and suffer,” he said, sarcastically, about the way loans were granted during the UPA regime. Banks, he said, lent billion of rupees in contravention of rules to businessmen referred by namdars. 

“The Congress and its namdars’ phone banking has caused much harm to the country,” Modi said, addressing a fully-packed indoor hall in Talkatora Stadium at the launch of India Post Payments Bank.

The PM also alleged that as people were appointed in banks through referrals and influence of namdars, banks kept on giving loans to select businessmen. He said every penny would be recovered.

“Knowing fully well that loans will not be paid back, banks lent money on orders of a family to a few,” he said, adding that banks were forced to restructure loans when borrowers started defaulting. Modi said the culprits knew that one day truth would come out, so they started fudging the records. He charged the UPA government of hiding the extent of NPAs.

“The real amount of NPAs was not disclosed. The earlier government lied when it said only about Rs 2.5 trillion NPAs were there, while the real figure was Rs 9 trillion,” he said. The figure was increasing every day due to the accumulation of interest amount, he added. Since coming to power in 2014, the NDA government had analysed the enormity of the situation and asked banks to strictly recover dues, he said. Modi said in the last four years, the NDA government had taken various steps to check this abuse of the banking system. All loans in excess of Rs 500 million had been reviewed and ensured that terms were strictly complied with, he added. Modi said 12 of the biggest loan defaulters had an outstanding of Rs 1.75 trillion. Another 27 have Rs 1 trillion dues. “I want to assure the country, of all these big loans, no single loan has been given by the NDA government,” Modi added.

The PM said earlier because of namdars, rich people used to get loans, but now the poor had started to get such loans. “Under the Mudra scheme, loans to the tune of Rs 13 trillion have been disbursed to the youth of the country.” The PM further said the 8.2 per cent growth rate in the first quarter of the current financial year showed that the country’s economy was growing very fast.