With business tycoon Vijay Mallya now offering to pay Rs.4,000 crore as partial settlement of what he owes to a consortium of banks, the issue has reached a crucial stage (“Mallya offers to pay Rs.4,000 cr. to banks”, March 31). The banks in question have evidently committed a series of gross blunders in extending such huge amounts to his businesses. In trying to realise these amounts, one is sure that bank officials will have to cross a legion of legal hurdles in the courts of various countries. It is the people’s money that is at stake now and it has to be seen how the remainder of the sums due will be recovered.
M. Somasekhar Prasad,
Badvel, Andhra Pradesh
The offer seems to be a last-ditch effort by the beleaguered business baron to bring things under some control. The term “compromise proposal” seems applicable to such an offer especially when banks in question are beginning to realise that they are in no position to recover the full amount. If the industrialist has the sufficient wherewithal to clear all his dues, if one considers his additional Rs.2000 crore offer, there is no reason why banks should settle for a much lesser amount and let him off the hook.
C.V. Aravind,
Bengaluru
The discounted offer is shocking and widely in contrast to the assurances of the Finance Minister that every penny due will be recovered. There should be no dangerous precedent set which will result in far-reaching consequences for the financial health of the banks that are affected.
Kshirasagara Balaji Rao,
Hyderabad
It is quixotic to see the Kingfisher Airlines chairman setting terms. He has no right to claim immunity from the long arm of the law with his posturing that the atmosphere in India is too vitiated for him to return. Has he forgotten the damage he has caused to the balance sheets of many a public sector bank with his reckless borrowing? It is public money that was lent and the people have every right to know what is happening. The media should not be content with reporting this particular case alone and must bring all such cases of the wilful default of bank loans by corporate entities into the public domain.
J. Anantha Padmanabhan,
Tiruchi
It is unfortunate that the businessman can now sit in a foreign land and dictate terms about how much to pay back, especially when small borrowers like farmers are threatened with dire consequences when they default on payments. The way the episode has progressed shows that our banks appear to be partial towards the rich and the famous. When the big sharks are allowed to evade income tax in the crores, it is the helpless salaried class that is being targeted for the submission of returns. The media too does not highlight these glaring disparities.
J. Eden Alexander,
Thanjavur
