Press Trust of India
New Delhi, March 25: Corporate misconduct happens all over the world and one episode of liquor baron Vijay Mallya cannot undo the good work done by domestic and international companies in India, Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said Friday. “All over the world, corporate misconduct happens. You have heard of so many different stories all over the world… it is not only in India. And just that one incident cannot be reflective of all the good work, which is being done by so many good companies, which are not just in India but also carrying the flag abroad,” she told PTI in an interview.
The minister was responding to a question whether Vijay Mallya episode will dent India’s image among investors. Sitharaman, however, said the nation could learn lessons and take steps to prevent recurrence of such corporate misdemeanours in future. “Many multinationals from India today are a performing all over the world. So I don’t think it will have a bad impact although we can use that as an example where if there are lessons to be learned about how we need to have a bit more due diligence, we need to do the course correction,” he said.
Mallya, whose group company owes over Rs 9,000 crore to 17 banks, had left the country on March 4 and currently is in the UK. His financial dealings are being probed by several investigative agencies, including CBI, Enforcement Directorate and tax department. He has also been leveled as ‘wilful defaulter’ by some banks. RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan had recently said people like Mallya could not lead a lavish life on borrowed money and continue to remain a defaulter, after the liquor baron threw a lavish party to celebrate his 60th birthday.
As per a recent report, there are 5,276 ‘wilful defaulters’ in the banking system and they altogether owe Rs 56,521 crore ($83.9 billion) to domestic banks. The money that wilful defaulters owe Indian banks has grown nine-fold over 13 years, and is more than 1.5 times the central government’s allocation for agriculture and farmer welfare (Rs 35,984 crore) in Union Budget 2016-17.
