End vilification of India Inc: ASSOCHAM -Governance Now

End vilification of India Inc: ASSOCHAM

Even bankers including, the RBI, realise that there is a vilification campaign against lenders and the industries, the industry body said

GN Bureau | May 9, 2016

#RBI #downturn #bank loans #ASSOCHAM

The associated chamber of commerce of India [ASSOCHAM] has asked the Narendra Modi government to change the definition of NPAs [non-performing assets] – from the present 90 days limit to service bank loans – to enable India Inc. to withstand the global downturn, which is being linked to the banks NPAs.

It asked the government to increase the 90 day limit, which, it felt, was too short in the scenario where the industry is passing through a rough patch.

The apex body of Indian businesses and industries said that currently a vilification campaign against India Inc was going on in which it was being painted mostly as willful defaulters of the banks, while the industry was grappling with a huge burden caused by a severe “global downturn, poor governance and various judicial pronouncements around the highly leveraged sectors like steel, energy and infrastructure”.

The managing committee of the ASSOCHAM recently discussed the public discourse about the NPAs at the end of which, it expressed concern that opinion makers were creating a poor impression of the industries and an environment in which people would not be able to speak pragmatically on the real issue behind the NPAs of the banks.

“Even bankers including the RBI realise that there is a vilification campaign against lenders and the industries, but the public discourse and narrative has been so much swayed in uni-direction that anyone speaking in a pragmatic and truthful way could be targeted as being friend of people perceived to be swindlers, but for all you know they may be struggling to keep their units operational against all odds,” an ASSOCHAM handout said.

It said that even the RBI had told the parliament that the large part of the NPAs are a result of the economic downturn.

ASSOCHAM said a majority of businesses have the intention to repay bank loans. However, it expects the opinion makers to appreciate the fact that while the global situation particularly in Europe was grim, the Indian industry had been managing even in sectors like steel. “It’s important to protect job losses,” it said.

It asked the “media, judiciary and opinion leaders” for a pragmatic approach on NPAs. “Let us not kill our projects and industries, where there is scope for revival.”

“The lenders should be more pragmatic and flexible in arriving at settlements for, what is being offered today may not even be available tomorrow if the unit if dead.”

It asked the government and the industry to join hands in changing the narrative to “timely hair cut, restricting, conversion into equity or simply put, taking some losses in the larger interests of the economy, mainly protection of jobs, should be something to be encouraged and not to be apologetic about.

Comments

Other News

3,543 ‘Shramik Special’ trains transport 48 lakh people in 26 days

Close to 48 lakh migrant labourers have been able to reach home from the cities they were working in, as the Indian Railways have run a total of 3,543 “Sharmik Special” trains from May 1. Following the home ministry order regarding the movement by special trains of migrant worker

How Jeevan Raths have helped 52,000 migrants in Maharashtra

Before the novel coronavirus hit it, Mumbai about 10-12 lakh labourers from elsewhere had made it their home. The figure for the state of Maharashtra was another 18-20 lakh. As the pandemic spread and the Maximum City emerged as the worst-hit place in India, all economic activities came to an end, and with

China is practicing attack as the best form of defence

For the rest of the world, it is not easy to understand China when it comes to politics or economics. Under pressure from the international community, it has accepted to open the country for a “comprehensive” probe into the origin of the deadly coronavirus. But it is not clear whether the Asian

Corona warriors to “flush the virus” in Mumbai

Even as humanitarian support is pouring in to help distressed migrants amid Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown, civil society organizations and NGOs are working for sanitation of community toilets which have become breeding source of virus infection. Every community toilet has 20 seats. Each

How lockdown was used to shore up health infrastructure

India, completing about two months of lockdown to protect against the spread of the Novel Coronavirus, has made good use of the time to improve health infrastructure, the government has said. Countering media reports “about some decisions of the government regarding the lockdown implem

Railways resume services from June 1

As India begins to learn to live with Covid-19 and come out of nearly two-month long lockdown, regular train services are set to resume from June 1 in a graded manner, even as more ‘shramik’ special trains are planned. The railway ministry, in consultation with the health ministr