The Central Information Commission (CIC) has directed the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to disclose the list of big loan defaulters it had sent to banks for resolution.
The CIC’s directive came while deciding on a plea by a an activist Nutan Thakur, who had based her RTI application on some media reports that RBI Deputy Governor Viral Acharya, in a lecture in 2017, had said accounts of some loan defaulters had been sent to banks for resolution.
“The IAC [internal advisory committee] has recommended that the RBI should initially focus on stressed assets, which are large, material and aged, in that they have eluded a viable resolution plan despite being classified as NPAs [non-performing assets] for a significant amount of time,” Dr. Acharya had said.
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The RBI had accordingly directed banks to file insolvency applications against 12 large accounts comprising about 25% of the total NPAs, he had said.
“The Reserve Bank has now advised the banks to resolve some of the other accounts by December 2017; if the banks fail to put in place a viable resolution plan within the timeline, these cases also will be referred for resolution under the IBC [Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code],” Dr. Acharya had said.
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The central bank had refused to provide the details to her by calling them “confidential information”, following which she approached the CIC.