Centre told the Supreme Court that “it’s not possible to give more relief to different sectors” amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, stressing that the “courts should not interfere in fiscal policy”.
The centre’s response came days after the court has said that the government’s last week affidavit on waiving “interest on interest” on loans of up to Rs 2 crore was “not satisfactory”.
The amount was frozen by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in a six-month moratorium granted because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Policy is the domain of the government and court should not go into sector-specific financial relief. Any further relief, besides waiving of compound interest for loans up to Rs 2 crore, is detrimental to the national economy and banking sector,” government said in an affidavit.
The government on last week told the top court that it was ready to waive interest on the repayment of loans of up to Rs 2 crore.
On Monday, however, the top court said the centre’s affidavit was not satisfactory “fails to deal with several issues raised by petitioners”.
The apex court had asked the government to consider the concerns of the real estate and power producers in fresh affidavits.
The interest waiver is applicable for loans taken by MSMEs, educational, housing, consumer goods and auto loans and for credit card dues.
The government said in a fresh affidavit that “relief for specific sectors cannot be demanded through petitions”.
“Only solution is lending institutions and their borrowers formulate restructuring plans… and centre, and RBI cannot interfere,” the affidavit reads.