'Bank NPAs appear to be bigger scam than 2G scam'

New Delhi: Attacking the BJP-led Central government over loan waivers for corporates, CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury on Saturday said the unpaid loans owed by private companies to the nationalised banks was a scam "10 times bigger" than the 2G spectrum scandal.

"More than Rs 11 lakh crore has been borrowed by Indian corporates form nationalised banks which they did not repay. Not only the government did not do anything to recover them, but waived off Rs 1.12 lakh crore owed by the corporates in the last two years.

"It is a humongous scam. A scam 10 times bigger than the 2G spectrum," the Communist Party of India-Marxist leader said on social networking sites Twitter and Facebook.

"When you ask to waive off the loans of the farmers who are committing suicide due to distress, the government is unwilling to do so, saying it does not have enough resources, but (it) can waive off corporate loans to the extent of Rs 1.12 lakh crore."

According to him, this "reflects the real face of the Central government".

Yechury, who has been opposing the government proposal of creating a "bad bank", called for recovering the loans instead of restructuring the banks.

"The suggestion of creating a bad bank is a bad idea, as it lets big defaulters get away scot-free. You just cannot restructure the nationalised banks so that they are once again able to dole out loans to the corporates," said the leader who has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi calling for "naming and shaming" the top 100 corporate loan defaulters and opposing the creation of a "bad bank".

"All this money which has been misappropriated in this fashion belongs to the public. Instead of creating a bad bank the government must take immediate steps to recover the loans from the corporates," added Yechury.