Sunday, May 12, 2013

Write off of bad debts at whose cost-Tax payers and depositors?


All these write off of loans running into thousands of crores of rupees are borne by the tax payers, depositors, share holders ,general customers employees and good and honest borrowers of banks. Though there is an inbuilt solution to contain formation of bad debts and discipline borrowers, banks, auditors and accountants and make the borrowers and banks to bear the cost of write offs without passing on to tax payers and other stake holders, there is reluctance and resistance  to attempt the solution on a trial basis from all corners. Both theRBI and Govt  also talk and express their concern on the staggering NPAs and loss to the exchequer, but what prevents them to introduce an inbuilt mechanism to bring under control the NPAs and discipline the recalcitrant borrowers is something strange. If the solution suggested   by this author in early 2000s had been implemented, this write offs could have been avoided and banks balance sheets would have been much stronger today. The suggestion developed as a statistical model and found workable has been published as a book titled Management of Non Performing Assets with a Foreword by the Chairman PMEAC. This model had been suggested to be published by the Foreign Examiners who had approved the  Phd  thesis with the remark that the model is worth a trial in Indian scenario. The benefits of savings on account of write offs if the suggestion had been implemented could have been passed on to depositors by offering them a higher rate of return, borrowers by granting reduction of interest rates, and share holders who include the Govt in case of PSBs a better rate of dividend, tax payers some benefits through improved GDP growth and reduced tax rates. Are the authorities waiting for Supreme Court to intervene in managing banks balance sheets ?
Dr.T.V.Gopalakrishnan
(This comment is in response to an Article Govt Banks write offs Rs 15000 crores appeared in Times of India dated 13/05/13 A modified version of this comment has also been published in TOI.). 

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