The Public Sector Banks in India have written off corporate loans worth over 12 lakh crore. Government data shows that in just the last five years, loans of 5.82 lakh crore were written off. While banks say write-offs don’t erase the liability, the reality is that recovery has been very poor. Big companies benefit the most, while ordinary citizens are closely monitored and penalised even for small defaults.
In this week’s In Public Interest, TNM’s Shabbir Ahmed speaks to Thomas Franco, former General Secretary of the All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC), to understand why corporate write-offs are favoured, how recovery actually works, and why middle-class taxpayers end up bearing the real burden.