Loans given to Tom, Dick, Harry, Jija, Bhatija during UPA-II: FM

New Delhi, December 5 (IANS) Commercial banks gave loans to every Tom, Dick, Harry, 'Jija' (brother-in-law) and 'Bhatija' (nephew) during the UPA-II regime, leaving a huge burden on the next government, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

Replying to members on the Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2019, the minister said that the previous government passed on huge unpaid bills to the next government.

"Under-recoveries to the oil companies alone were Rs 1.4 lakh crore, which were left without mention," Sitharaman said.

She said the two issues of unpaid bills and outlandish lending were big burden for the Modi government that came to power in 2014.

Speaking about reckless lending by the commercial banks, she said that gross advances by commercial banks at the end of March 2008 was Rs 25 lakh crore but it skyrocketed to Rs 68 lakh crore at the end of March 2014.

She stressed that this was before the Narendra Modi-led government came to power.

The Finance Minister also said that the NDA government has been recapitalising banks to get rid of the toxic loans which have been turning NPA gradually.