As per the latest data issued by the Government of India, there are 4,387 large borrowers who account for 90 per cent of the non-performing assets (NPAs) of India’s banks which amounts to Rs. 8.6 lakh crores. According to data provided in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, the NPAs of the banks stood at R. 9.62 lakh crores as at the end of March 31 this year. The NPAs saw a quantum jump to Rs 9.2 lakh crores from the Rs. 2. 51 lakh crores in 2014.  The big borrowers are the big industries of India and who's who of the corporate world. And who are the ones who pay their loans regularly to the banks? They are the hoi polloi of India, the farmers, the small traders, small-scale industries, personal loans, etc. If these people don’t pay on time the banks will be at their door-steps next day armed with a court notice to attach their properties while big names like Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, et al are escorted to airports to escape from the country after looting the banks.

But will we ever know who are these big defaulters? No. Despite a Supreme Court order to disclose the names  of big defaulters as far back as December 2015, the RBI refused to do so citing the clauses of economic interests of the state, the banks, the commercial confidence and the information held in fiduciary capacity. It had also cited the provisions of Section 45-E of the RBI Act, 1934, which prohibits disclosure of credit information.

 When the NPA situation got out of hand and defaulters started fleeing the country, the Narendra Modi government in  March this year asked the banks to 'name and shame' such borrowers by publishing their photographs and other details in newspapers. But because of the RBI's stand even this did not succeed. When the NPA in 2016 was about Rs. 6 lakh crores the RBI should have acted. But it failed in its constitutional duty and allowed the banks to give more loans to corporate sector raising the NPAs to present level. It is the public money that the corporate sector is eating away like a thief at night.