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RBI may amend secrecy law

Union Minister of State for Expenditure, Banking and Finance, Balasaheb Vikhe Patil, has said the Reserve Bank of India was seriously considering amendment of the secrecy law to enable publication of names of willful bank defaulters.

The non-performing assets of public sector banks had gone up to Rs 540 billion and the government would not spare any willful defaulter, Patil said after inaugurating the regional office building of the Allahabad Bank in Bhubaneswar on Wednesday.

A survey conducted by a government agency had revealed that there were over 250 willful defaulters against whom legal action was being initiated, he said.

The minister explained that as per the existing secrecy law, names of defaulters not referred to the debt recovery tribunal could not be published.

Referring to criticism that small defaulters were being hauled up while the big ones were allowed to go scot-free, Patil said the government would not spare any one of them.

The banks, he said, had been instructed not to ask for any postponement while negotiating recovery. "If they do so, they will have to explain it."

Proceedings of the DRTs would not be delayed because of the banks, the minister said adding that all loopholes in the debt recovery process would be plugged with the active support of the government.

The Indian Banks Association was being consulted on this, he said.

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