Former Finance Minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Saturday said that balance sheet of Yes Bank, which is facing a crisis, showed that outstanding loans were jumping at 35 per cent and sought an inquiry into "how it was not noticed by officials in government or the RBI".
Addressing a press conference here, he said that the resolution plan proposed to deal with Yes Bank crisis does not give the impression that SBI is a volunteer and these are "command performances."
"I don't get the impression that SBI is a volunteer in the rescue act just as LIC was not a volunteer in the IDBI Bank rescue act. These are command performances," Chidambaram said.
The former finance minister said loan book of Yes Bank jumped from Rs 55,633 crore in March 2014 to Rs 2,41, 499 crore in March 2019.
He said every commercial bank is subject to an internal audit, a concurrent audit and an external audit and the balance sheet has to be submitted to the RBI.
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"Quarterly and half-yearly statements have to be submitted to the RBI. No one in the RBI seems to have read the balance sheet. If you would have simply read the balance sheet, you will know the outstanding loans is jumping at the rate of 35 per cent a year. And why did somebody not stop it sometime say 2015 or 2016," he said.
"This is a matter that must be thoroughly inquired into. How is that no official of the Department of Financial Services, no official of the RBI, no auditor noticed that the jump in the loan book at 35 per cent year... During that period, 2014-19, the loan book of the entire banking system was growing at about 9.5-10 per cent a year. And here you have Yes Bank loan book growing at about 35 per cent a year," he added.
Taking a dig at Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Chidambaram said, "Sometimes when I listen to the Finance Minister, I get the feeling that the UPA is still in power, I am still the Finance Minister and she is the Opposition."
Chidambaram said whoever takes over Yes Bank "must takeover with the condition that all depositors' money is safe."
"Finance Minister mentioned yesterday about the mergers done under Governor Reddy. The mergers that we did under Governor Reddy ensured that every depositor got the last pie. Our insistence will be whatever is the new management of Yes Bank, the depositors must be completely safe because they are the most innocent and least involved in this fiasco," he said.
Answering a query about a debate in Parliament over Delhi violence not having been held in the first week of the second half of the budget session, Chidambaram said the party was very disappointed.
"We are very, very disappointed that the debate was not taken up in the first week of Parliament. In fact, somebody tweeted, there is a Parliament which is discussing the Delhi riots and it is not the Indian Parliament. The discussion took place in the House of Lords in England. I sincerely hope that both presiding officers will allow a debate to start at 11 am on March 11," he said.
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