RBI should ask banks to show unrecovered loans of fugitives as 'outstanding', says Chidambaram

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Thursday said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) should direct banks to reverse entries and continue to show the unrecovered loans of fugitives such as Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and Vijay Mallya as outstanding.

His remarks came a day after a slugfest between the BJP and Congress over loan write-offs of the top 50 bank-loan defaulters in the country.

"The debate on waiver or write-off is academic. People who are mighty pleased are Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and Vijay Mallya! Rules are made by human beings. If a rule can be made, it can be unmade too.

"The only way to undo the monumental error is for RBI to direct the banks concerned to reverse the entries and continue to show the unrecovered loans from the fugitives as 'Outstanding Loans' on their books and take steps to recover them," the former finance minister said on Twitter.

Chidambaram had, on Wednesday, said the technical write-off book rule should not have been applied to fugitives and demanded answers from the Centre.