Employees union for tougher action against corporate defaults

The All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) has urged the central government to take severe action against the increasing bad loans in the banking industry. AIBEA will present its demands to the government on Bank Nationalisation Day, July 19.

Addressing a press conference C H Venkatachalam, general secretary, AIBEA, said, "We propose to meet Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh during the next session of the parliament for his intervention."

AIBEA will raise three main issues with the government. To publish the list of big loan defaulters. To amend securitisation act to cover the attachment of the personal properties of the borrowers in addition to attachment of the company properties.

The association is demanding that willful default of loans should be treated as a criminal offence while it is considered as civil offence.

If the government does not take serious action on the growing bad debts, AIBEA will call for an all India strike on this issue to focus the attention of the people to this serious corporate delinquency, he added.

"Bad loans amounting to Rs 1crore and over has been increasing year-on- year while the banks have been reducing their non performing assets every year by writing them off," he added.

Amounts written off as bad loans grew to Rs 11,074 crore in 2004-05 from Rs 9,039 crore. In 2003-04, amounts provided for bad loans by public sector banks was Rs 14,353 crore which is 36 per cent of their profits of Rs 39,498 crore.

TAMIL NADU
Tamil Nadu has about 386 non-suit filed accounts of over Rs 1 crore amounting to Rs 3,032 crore and 1,469 suit filed accounts amounting to Rs 7,723 crore as on March 31, 2004.