Bad loans in NE rising

Cases piling up in Debt tribul, most defaulters big fish

Staff Reporter

Guwahati, Nov 29: Bad loans are rising alarmingly across the banking system.

The number of cases received by the Debt Recovery Tribul at Guwahati has doubled in the last five years. And indicating how arduous the process of recovering loans from the defaulter is, the pile of pending cases is rising sharply too.

Since its inception in 1997, the tribul in Guwahati has received 2,874 cases of which 2,212 have been disposed off.

The tribul in Guwahati, set up by the Union Fince ministry, caters to the eight Northeastern states. The debt tribuls deal with bad loans of over Rs 10 lakh.

Till 2008, the rate of case disposal was almost cent per cent.

However, from 2009, the cases began to pile up.

In 2011, the tribul had received 276 cases of which six are still pending. The following year, 241 cases were received of which only 215 were disposed off.

The rate of case disposal slowed drastically in 2013. In that year, 241 cases were received and only 184 were disposed off. In 2014, of the 308 cases registered, only 128 were disposed off. This year, already 392 cases have been registered by the tribul. Only six of them have been disposed off (as on October last).

Sources said the cases are getting increasingly complex.

"Most of the defaulters are big fishes. Cases of bad loans have increased after implementation of the exclusive industrial policy for the region in which a slew of subsidies are given," sources said.

These statistics serve as a reminder that while the government and the banking regulator are moving towards stronger debt recovery rules, including a new bankruptcy law, the process of actual loan recovery remains a slow grind.

In the entire country, at end of December 2014, 59,645 cases involving Rs.3.74 trillion of bank loans were pending before debit recovery tribuls, according to data from the government's department of fincial services, up from 47,933 cases involving Rs.1.78 trillion of loans at the end of 2013.

Top Headlines

No stories found.
Sentinel Assam
www.sentinelassam.com