News Analysis India

Tag: State Bank of India

  • Mystery donations: TMC and JD(U) claim electoral bonds left anonymously at their offices

    The Trinamool Congress and JD(U) provided bizarre explanations in their electoral bond disclosures for 2018-19. They claimed that unidentified individuals had delivered sealed envelopes to their respective offices in Kolkata and Patna, leaving them unaware of the donors’ identities. The Election Commission on Sunday made fresh electoral bonds data public for the period prior to 2019.

    While JD(U) revealed the identities of donors contributing Rs 3 crore out of the total Rs 13 crore received in April 2019, the TMC did not disclose the identities of donors who collectively contributed nearly Rs 75 crore through electoral bonds between July 16, 2018, and May 22, 2019.

    The TMC stated in its submission to the Election Commission on May 27, 2019, that most of these bonds were sent to their office anonymously, either dropped in a drop box or delivered by messengers, making it impossible for them to ascertain the names and details of the buyers. Similarly, JD(U) stated in its submission on May 30, 2019, that someone had delivered a sealed envelope containing 10 electoral bonds of Rs 1 crore each to their office in Patna on April 3, 2019.JD(U) reiterated that they had no knowledge of the donors’ details, emphasizing that they were unaware due to the absence of the Supreme Court order at the time of bond receipt, with only the government’s gazette notification being in effect.

    TMC suggested that identities could be established using the unique numbers assigned to electoral bonds issued by the State Bank of India. They indicated that SBI, as the sole issuer of these bonds, possessed all necessary details of the bondholders, including their KYC documents, PAN card, identity proof, address proof, and other supporting documents as per the bank’s requirements.

    EC makes fresh electoral bonds data publicThe Election Commission (EC) on Sunday information on electoral bonds on Sunday, which was previously submitted in sealed envelopes to the Supreme Court and later mandated to be made public. These details cover the period preceding April 12, 2019. In accordance with the Supreme Court’s interim order from April 12, 2019, political parties had submitted data on Electoral Bonds in sealed envelopes, as stated by the poll panel in a statement.Initially, the State Bank of India (SBI) had provided data spanning from April 12, 2019, until the cancellation of the bonds by the apex court last month. However, the recent disclosure is based on declarations made by various political parties in November last year regarding the bonds they redeemed since the scheme’s launch in early 2018, excluding the final few tranches.According to the latest data shared by the EC, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) received the highest funds through these bonds, totaling Rs 6,986.5 crore since their launch in 2018, followed by West Bengal’s ruling party Trinamool Congress (Rs 1,397 crore), Congress (Rs 1,334 crore), and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (Rs 1,322 crore).

    Odisha’s ruling party Biju Janata Dal (BJD) ranked fifth, receiving Rs 944.5 crore, followed by the DMK at Rs 656.5 crore and Andhra Pradesh’s ruling party YSR Congress at nearly Rs 442.8 crore.

    The latest data release reveals that the Janata Dal (Secular) obtained bonds worth Rs 89.75 crore, including Rs 50 crore from Megha Engineering, the second-largest buyer of electoral bonds. Future Gaming emerged as the largest purchaser of electoral bonds, acquiring Rs 1,368 crore worth, with almost 37 percent directed to the DMK. (With TOI inputs)

  • SBI loan fraud: SC stays Bombay HC order permitting private firm chairperson to travel to UAE

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has stayed a Bombay High Court order permitting Suman Vijay Gupta, the chairperson of a Mumbai-based private company, to travel to the UAE after taking note of a case in which she is accused of defrauding State Bank of India of Rs 3,300 crore.

    Gupta is the chairperson of Ushdev International Limited (UIL).

    A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice P S Narasimha on Thursday took note of the submissions of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that the law enforcement agencies have had a bad experience allowing economic offenders and fraudsters to go abroad on personal undertakings as they seldom honour their undertakings come back to face the proceedings here.

    “She is the chairperson of a company that took a loan of Rs 3,300 crore. The CBI is investigating (the case). After the loan was declared an NPA (non-performing asset), she renounced the citizenship of India and got the citizenship of Dominica,” the top law officer said.

    A lookout circular (LOC) was issued and she was prevented from travelling, he said, adding that the Bombay High Court said that it will let her go if she filed an undertaking stating that she will return to face legal proceedings in the case against her.

    “We have a very bad experience with the undertakings,” Mehta said.

    The bench said, “We will issue a notice. Pending further orders, there shall be a stay on the High Court order.”

    Mehta said the insolvency proceedings were initiated against UIL after the fraud was detected and the CBI later registered a case against Gupta, who relinquished her Indian citizenship and became a  Commonwealth of Dominica citizen while residing in the UAE.

    Gupta had come to attend her nephew’s wedding and the LOC was issued in 2020, he said.

    NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has stayed a Bombay High Court order permitting Suman Vijay Gupta, the chairperson of a Mumbai-based private company, to travel to the UAE after taking note of a case in which she is accused of defrauding State Bank of India of Rs 3,300 crore.

    Gupta is the chairperson of Ushdev International Limited (UIL).

    A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice P S Narasimha on Thursday took note of the submissions of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that the law enforcement agencies have had a bad experience allowing economic offenders and fraudsters to go abroad on personal undertakings as they seldom honour their undertakings come back to face the proceedings here.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    “She is the chairperson of a company that took a loan of Rs 3,300 crore. The CBI is investigating (the case). After the loan was declared an NPA (non-performing asset), she renounced the citizenship of India and got the citizenship of Dominica,” the top law officer said.

    A lookout circular (LOC) was issued and she was prevented from travelling, he said, adding that the Bombay High Court said that it will let her go if she filed an undertaking stating that she will return to face legal proceedings in the case against her.

    “We have a very bad experience with the undertakings,” Mehta said.

    The bench said, “We will issue a notice. Pending further orders, there shall be a stay on the High Court order.”

    Mehta said the insolvency proceedings were initiated against UIL after the fraud was detected and the CBI later registered a case against Gupta, who relinquished her Indian citizenship and became a  Commonwealth of Dominica citizen while residing in the UAE.

    Gupta had come to attend her nephew’s wedding and the LOC was issued in 2020, he said.

  • Bad bank to buy Rs 50,000 crore NPAs in first phase

    By Express News Service

    MUMBAI: Nearly a year after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced it in the 2021 Budget, India’s first bad bank is set to go live. All regulatory approvals have been secured to set up the National Asset Reconstruction Company (NARCL) and India Debt Resolution Company (IDRCL), State Bank of India (SBI) chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara told reporters here on Friday. 

    SBI is one of the stakeholders in the bad bank. The announcement comes days before the 2022 Budget. The bad bank has two legs — NARCL to identify, aggregate and acquire stressed assets from lenders, and IDRCL to handle the debt-resolution.

    A total of 38 accounts worth Rs 82,845 crore have so far been identified for transfer to NARCL in a phased manner, said Khara. In the first phase, banks will transfer 15 non-performing accounts aggregating Rs 50,000 crore to NARCL. This will be done within the current financial year, which ends on March 31, said Khara. NARCL will transfer these bad loans to IDRCL, which will then scout for domestic or international buyers in an attempt to resolve them.

    NARCL will try to acquire assets on a 15:85 cash and security receipts (SRs) ratio. It means the lenders will receive 15% upfront cash payment and the remaining in the form of SRs guaranteed by the Government of India for their face value. 

    The guarantee is for Rs 30,600 crore. If the bad bank can’t sell the loan or sells them for a loss, the SRs guaranteed by the government will be used to make good the difference between what the lender was supposed to receive and what NARCL was able to raise. 

    The government guarantee will be valid for five years from the SR’s date of issue. The SRs will enable release of capital from the banking system as the lenders will not be required to make any provisions for that capital. The risk weight would be zero and this capital could be deployed more productively. The NARCL-IDRCL structure will maximise the value for all stakeholders, Khara said. 

    Anantha Nageswaran appointed India’s Chief Economic Advisor

    The Centre on Friday appointed Dr. V Anantha Nageswaran as the Chief Economic Advisor (CEA). Nageswaran, an academic and former executive with Credit Suisse Group AG and Julius Baer Group, succeeds K V Subramanian, who demitted office in December 2021 after the completion of his three-year term

  • Banks consortium gets over Rs 792 crore in Vijay Mallya loan default case: ED

    Last month too, the banks consortium had realised more than Rs 7,181 crore in the Mallya case after a similar sale of attached shares.

  • Editorial: – Know, why Dena Bank, Vijaya Bank and Bank of Baroda Merged ?

    Taking lessons from the bank scandal on the calls of the namdass during the UPA regime, the NDA government now looks for banking reform.

    It is notable that in the same way Indira Gandhi made important decisions for the nationalization of banks during her prime ministership. She nationalized 14 private banks on July 19, 1969. These banks were mostly occupied by large industrial houses. After this, the second round of nationalization took place in 1980, under which seven more banks were nationalized.

    >> According to Arun Jaitley, the government had declared in the budget that the merger of banks is its main agenda and the first step has been taken in this direction. Talking about the weakening of the country’s banking system, the Finance Minister said that due to non-payment of new loans, the investment in the corporate sector was adversely affecting. Arun Jaitley said that this merger will strengthen the bank and the ability to lend them will increase.

    >> The Finance Minister assured that the merger of these three banks is not bad news for any of these employees. “Any employee will not face any adverse situation,” he said. Earlier, the central government had merged the State Bank of India and its five associate banks last year.

    >> Arun Jaitley further said that due to the huge lending and huge gains in the stranded debt (NPA), the condition of the banks is poor. In the financial year 2017-18, the figure of NPA has been more than Rs 10 lakh crore. According to the finance minister, how bad the situation is, it can be traced only in 2015. He attributed this to the previous UPA government and said that he kept the eyes on NPA issue.

    Mergers like SBI will not have any adverse effect on existing service conditions of the employees of the three banks. The government has a majority stake in 21 banks. These banks have more than two-thirds of the bank’s assets in Asia’s third largest economy.

    However, along with these public banks, there is a large stake in trapped debt. The area is affected due to this immersed debt and millions of rupees are required in the next two years to comply with global Basel-III capital regulations.

    Smriti Irani had said a few days ago that Sonia’s leadership had done bad things to the banks.

    It is worth noting that PM Modi also said this during a program organized here on the occasion of the inauguration of the payment bank of the Postal Department a few days ago. He said that until four to five years ago, most of the capital of the banks was reserved for close relatives of only one family. PM Modi said that since 2008, a total of 18 lakh crore rupees had been given for the year 2008, but in the next six years, this figure has reached Rs 52 lakh crore.

    PM Modi asked for someone’s name, “Loan on call calls made by Namdhars were given. He said that on the anniversary of the nominees, the banks lend millions of rupees to the traders keeping the rules in mind. ”

    PM Modi had said that it was well aware that debt will not be made, banks have given loans to some people on the order of a family. When the borrowers were unable to pay the debt, the banks were pressured to reorganize that loan. They accused the previous UPA government of concealing information related to non-executed assets (NPAs).

    PM Modi said that after coming to power in the NDA government in 2014, he analyzed the situation in a big way and asked banks to strictly recover the outstanding loans.

    It is true that the Congress has laid landmines in the way of the economy. Our government presented the correct picture of NPA and the previous government scandal was brought to the fore. During the last four years, all the loans have been reviewed more than Rs. 50 crores and the rules have been asked to ensure strict compliance.

    ’12 lacs of Rs. 1.75 crores on 12 major debt defaulters. The other 27 defaulters have owed one lakh crore rupees. We have never given any loan to one of these 12 big defaulters.