Jaitley against present loan recovery system

NEW DELHI: Union Law Minister Arun Jaitley said on Friday the existing system of creditors chasing the debtors for recovery of loans must go and expressed concern over cases involving over Rs 1 lakh crore that were pending before debt recovery tribunals. "The present system of creditors chasing debtors should go," Union Law Minister Arun Jaitley said here, addressing the 10th annual general meeting of American Chambers of Commerce and Industry. He said banks and financial institutions were involved in cases for recovering Rs 1,10,000 crore. The government was seized of the problem of non-performing assets (NPAs) that plague the banking system, he said. NPAs currently amount to over Rs 56,000 crore. The Minister said a number of economic legislations pending clearance from the Parliamentary Standing Committees needed to be "expedited" to deal with the situation. Also required is faster securitisation and foreclosure procedures. Jaitley did not comment on the nitty-gritty of the proposed legislations for the banking sector, saying that would be improper as the Parliament session was on. The pending economic legislations include Competition Law, Convergence Law, Labour Law and Fiscal Responsibility Act. Even as there were many advantages with the Standing Committee examining the proposed legislations, the downside was that it involved considerable delay in the process of drafting legislations, he said.