Issue white paper on bank frauds, make public names of defaulters: Cong to govt

The Congress demanded on Tuesday that the government issue a white paper on bank frauds in the country and asked it to take concrete, corrective actions to rescue the "sinking" economy.

Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill said the names of all defaulters should be made public and urged the government to stop "putting pressure" on the Reserve Bank of India to withhold the names.

"As a responsible political opposition, the Indian National Congress exhorts the new BJP government to take concrete steps in order to pull out the banking sector from this mess. The government must issue a white paper on rising bank frauds in India," he told reporters.

"We suggest the BJP government must come out of the denial mode and start acknowledging the failing economy. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman must take immediate stock of the situation and corrective measures to ascertain the root cause of the rising banking frauds," he added.

The Congress leader said the ongoing cases abroad against 36 economic offenders must be expedited and steps be taken for bringing them back.

"We demand that if the government can interfere in the RBI's functioning and take its surplus fund, it should also make public the names of all wilful defaulters as per the Supreme Court judgement and directions of the Central Information Commission.

"Why is the BJP government hiding the names of wilful defaulters? Why does it not want that these names should come before the people? Why is it exerting pressure on the RBI to not list such names of wilful defaulters, some of whom have also fled the country?" Shergill asked.

He said the latest RBI data reveals that over 6,800 cases of bank fraud involving an unprecedented Rs 71,500 crore have been reported in 2018-19 and 27,125 cases of bank frauds of Rs 1.74 lakh crore were reported in the past five years.

He alleged that the fleeing of Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi prove that the government is not focusing on protecting public money.

Shergill said the government should also act to increase the number of staff in the Department of Financial Services to better manage the sector.