Stalin asks RBI, Fin Min to extend loan moratorium period by 6 months

It was not humane on the part of banks, which rejoiced when the same customers had paid their dues promptly, to trouble them now, Stalin said in a statement on Sunday. RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das and the Union Finance Minister should come forward to extend the moratorium on EMIs for another six months from August 31, taking into account the disruption in cash flow among people, he added.

Citing a recent statement by the RBI governor who had quoted Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” on recovering from COVID-19 crisis, Stalin said the poor, middle class and MSMEs were struggling to stay afloat during the lockdown like the governor had quoted.

“The RBI governor should keep in mind that it would not be a great challenge for the RBI, which decided in its 584th executive committee meeting to give Rs 57,128 crore surplus fund of 2019-20 fiscal to the Centre, to help poor and middle class people,” said Stalin.

Remarking that the arguments by bank chiefs that “people would forget remittance of loans” and “finance position of banks would be affected” were unacceptable, Stalin said banks pressing for ending the moratorium, forgetting the prompt repayment by the same customers earlier, was the height of anti-customer behaviour.

Citing reports suggesting that the RBI was not favourably disposed to extending the moratorium, Stalin said the silence of RBI governor, who knows the economic impact, on such reports was not healthy to economic revival.