Expert panel formed to assess relief for bank borrowers

New Delhi, Sep 10 (IANS) The Centre has constituted an expert panel under the chairmanship of former Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Rajiv Mehrishi for assessment of relief required by bank borrowers in the wake of the pandemic.

The development comes after the Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Centre to consider a plea for not charging interest and interest on interest on deferred EMIs during the moratorium period and also not downgrade the credit and asset classification of the borrowers.

A Finance Ministry statement said: “Various concerns have been raised during the proceedings of the ongoing hearing in Supreme Court of India, in the matter of Gajendra Sharma Vs. UoI and Others, of the matter regarding the relief sought in terms of waiver of interest and waiver of interest on interest and other related issues.”

“Government has accordingly constituted an Expert Committee for making an overall assessment so that its decisions in this regard are better informed.”

The committee, to be headed by Mehrishi, also includes former IIM-Ahmedabad professor and former member, Monetary Policy Committee of the Reserve Bank of India, Ravindra H. Dholakia, and former Managing Director, State Bank of India and IDBI Bank, B. Sriram. The State Bank of India (SBI) will provide secretarial support to the committee.

The terms of reference of the committee would include measuring the impact on the national economy and financial stability of waiving of interest and waiving of interest on the Covid-19 related moratorium.

It would also provide suggestions to mitigate financial constraints of various sections of society in this respect and measures to be adopted in this regard.

The committee will submit its report within one week and may consult banks or other stakeholders, as deemed necessary, for the purpose, said the official statement.

–IANS

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