The Supreme Court will on Tuesday pronounce verdict on a batch of pleas by various trade associations, including from real estate and power sectors, seeking extension of loan moratorium and other reliefs in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. A bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan which had reserved its verdict on the batch of pleas on December 17, last year, will pronounce the judgement.
The Centre had earlier submitted before the top court that if it were to consider waiving interest on all the loans and advances to all categories of borrowers for the six-month moratorium period announced by RBI in view of COVID-19 pandemic, then the amount foregone would be more than Rs 6 lakh crore. If the banks were to bear this burden, then it would necessarily wipe out a substantial and a major part of their net worth, rendering most of the lenders unviable and raising a very serious question mark over their very survival, it had said.
Giving an illustration, it had said that in case of State Bank of India alone (which is the largest bank in the country), waiver of six months’ interest would completely wipe out over half of the bank’s net worth which has accumulated over nearly 65 years of its existence.
It had pointed out the sector-specific relief measures taken by the government for the small and mid-sized business/MSMEs including from sectors such as restaurants and hotels.
The Centre has promulgated emergency credit-linked guarantee scheme (ECLGS) of Rs 3 lakh crore providing additional credit at lower rate of interest, with 100 per cent government guarantee and no fresh collateral, it had said. The scheme has been extended with higher financial limits to twenty seven COVID-19 impacted sectors including restaurant and hotel sectors, it had said.