Union Law minister and senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad on Monday alleged that while the Congress was raising the pitch on NPAs against the Modi government, the UPA was the one responsible for it.
Targeting the Congress on Monday, the BJP has accused former finance minister and Congress leader P Chidambaram of benefiting private companies through the 80:20 gold import scheme, including Nirav Modi’s Gitanjali on UPA government’s last day in office in 2014.
Union Law minister and senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad on Monday alleged that while the Congress was raising the pitch on NPAs against the Modi government, the UPA was the one responsible for it.
“In 2008, the total advance given by banks was Rs 18.6 lakh crore. During the subsequent six-year rule of the UPA, till March 2014, it rose to Rs 52.15 lakh crore. Out of these advances, 36% loans were identified as stressed assets. Now, the stressed asset has risen to 82%. This happened as UPA suppressed this from reflecting in bank records,” Prasad said.
“There was one economist prime minister and one super-economist was his finance minister,” said Prasad in obvious reference to Manmohan Singh and P Chidambaram, respectively. “Under our government, no loan has become an NPA,” Prasad said.
“The 80:20 scheme was launched in August 2013 and it ended in November 2014. Mark the dates: we ended it when we came to power as we saw how dangerous it was. The current account deficit was high under UPA so gold was allowed to be imported by MMTC. But, the UPA government allowed some private companies to import gold. On May 16 2014, the date of the declaration of results when several exit polls had predicted a Congress defeat, the Finance Ministry gave ‘ashirvad’ to 7 private companies to import gold under this scheme including Gitanjali. It was just a way of round-tripping,” Prasad claimed.
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