New Delhi: Chances of a court-imposed additional debilitating burden on banks and the exchequer in the form of a wider debt relief to borrowers appeared to ebb on Wednesday.
Hearing a batch of petitions seeking a waiver of interest on deferred EMIs during a six-month repayment moratorium that ended on August 31, the Supreme Court said, “We welcome the decision of the government to give a helping hand to the small borrowers”, but emphasised that the decision should be implemented at the earliest.
The court asked the Centre why it was “taking so much time” to implement the promised compound interest waiver scheme on loans up to Rs 2 crore.
It asked the government to come up with the notification/orders by November 2, the next date of hearing.
During a previous hearing, the court had said the scheme was “not satisfactory”, and asked the government and the central bank to place on record the actions taken on the KV Kamath committee’s report on debt restructuring. It even urged government-RBI to consider the issues raised by the real estate associations and power producers over their rising debt burden.