Banks reported 44,016 cases of fraud involving ₹ 1,85,624 cr in last 11 yrs

New Delhi, Jul 9 (PTI) Banks and select financial institutions have reported 44,016 cases of fraud in the last 11 years beginning 2008-09 involving amount of ₹ 1,85,624 crore, Rajya Sabha was informed on Tuesday.

The year 2016-17 witnessed reporting of 3,927 cases of fraud involving amount of ₹ 25,883.99 crore, which was the highest in the last 11 years, Minister of State for Finance Anurag Singh Thakur said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

In the following year, the number of such cases rose to 4,228 but the amount involved declined to ₹ 9,866.23 crore.

In 2018-19, 2,836 cases of fraud were reported involving amount of ₹ 6,734.60 crore, he said.

During 2012-13, banks and select financial institutions reported 4,504 cases with amount involving ₹ 24,819.36 crore.

The government has taken comprehensive steps to reduce the incidence of frauds in banks including examination of all NPA accounts exceeding ₹ 50 crore by banks for any possible fraud, he said in reply to a question raised by BJP leader R K Sinha.

Besides, the government has enacted Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018 to deter offenders from evading the process of Indian law by remaining outside the jurisdiction of Indian courts, he said.

The Act provides for attachment of property of a fugitive economic offender, confiscation of such offender's property and disentitlement of the offender from defending any civil claim, he added.

In addition, public sector banks have been advised to obtain certified copy of the passport of the promoters or directors and other authorised signatories of companies availing loan facilities of more than ₹ 50 crore and, decide on publishing photographs of wilful defaulters.

The heads of these banks have also been empowered to issue request for Look Out Circulars (LOCs), he said.

The impact of the above steps is reflected in Reserve Bank's Financial Stability Report (FSR) of June 2019, he said.

As per FSR, he said systemic and comprehensive checking of legacy stock of NPAs of PSBs for frauds has helped unearth frauds perpetrated over a number of years, which is getting reflected in increased number of reported incidents in recent years compared to previous years.

Replying to another question, Thakur said liquidity in the financial system turned into surplus in early June 2019, after a large injection of durable liquidity by RBI in the previous months.

"The liquidity surplus/deficit in the banking system is reflected in the net amount absorbed/injected by RBI under the Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF) and includes Marginal Standing Facility (MSF)," he said.

As per RBI data, the daily net liquidity progressively improved from an average daily deficit of ₹ 70,004 crore during April 2019 to average daily deficit of ₹ 33,400 crore during May 2019. In June there was an average daily surplus of ₹ 51,710 crore, he said.

The liquidity surplus reached a level of ₹ 1,39,265 crore as on July 3, 2019, he added.