Canara Bank wrote off bad loans worth Rs 1.29 lakh crore over last 11 year, reveals RTI response

Canara Bank, India’s fourth largest public sector bank, has written off bad loans worth Rs 1.29 lakh crore in the last 11 years, its response to an RTI query has revealed.  

However, the bank refused to divulge the details with respect to the big defaulters, citing Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act.  

This clause of the RTI Act prevents the disclosure of any ‘personal information’ not directly linked to any public activity or interest.  

“Information sought is the personal information of the borrowers and its disclosure would cause unwarranted invasion of the privacy of the concerned and which is exempted from disclosure under section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act,” said the bank in its reply to the application sent by Pune-based RTI activist Vivek Velankar.  

As per the reply, Canara Bank has written off a total of Rs 1,29,088 crore of bad loans between FY11-12 to FY 21-22.  

On details pertaining to the big defaulters having loans above Rs 100 crore, the bank said: “Information sought is not maintained in the manner sought for”.  

Velankar, who is the president of an NGO called Sajag Nagrik Manch said, “Why does not the privacy clause apply when they publish the name of the common borrowers?”  

The RTI activist believes authorities often use this clause of the RTI Act as a pretext to hide information from the public.  

Velankar told National Herald that two years ago, Canara Bank had refused to share information on bad loans. The bank had then asked him to check its annual reports, he recalled.  

Established in 1906 at Mangalore by Ammembal Subba Rao Pai, Canara Bank was nationalised in 1969. In 2020, Syndicate Bank was merged with Canara Bank as part of the Modi government’s move to merge 10 PSU banks into four “to form fewer, stronger lenders to help boost credit and revive growth.”