Citizens' Accountability LedgerWho owned the mess? 25 years, every party, on the record

Case 73 · Public money

₹16 lakh crore written off. About 16% recovered.

2014 to 2025 (cumulative)

Public money, quietly erased

515 days since Recorded outcome: Public money, quietly erased.

Human cost
Borne by public-sector banks and, ultimately, ordinary depositors and taxpayers
Financial cost Est
~₹16.35 to 16.61 lakh cr in bad loans written off since 2014; only about 16% recovered; roughly ₹9.26 lakh cr of it owed by big industry

What happened

Indian banks wrote off around ₹16.6 lakh crore in bad loans since 2014, according to RBI data given in an RTI reply and in Parliament, of which only about 16 percent has been recovered. The bulk, roughly ₹9 lakh crore, was owed by large industry and services.

Claim against record

What the government said

The government says write-offs are accounting measures, that borrowers remain liable, that recovery is an ongoing process, and that gross NPAs have since fallen to multi-year lows.

What the record shows

Public money, quietly erased

Write-offs are, as the government insists, prudential accounting rather than formal waivers, yet the pattern is hard to stomach: colossal sums of public-bank money erased, overwhelmingly for big corporate borrowers, with recovery stuck near a sixth, while the borrowers' identities stay shielded under the RBI Act. The gulf between how gently large defaulters are treated and how hard small ones are chased has never been honestly answered.

What accountability should have looked like

Publish the names of big defaulters, pursue corporate recovery as relentlessly as small-borrower recovery, and account transparently for exactly what public money was lost and to whom.

Ministers and office-holders responsible

Naming who held the portfolio is a matter of public record. It is not by itself a finding of personal responsibility for any death or any rupee.

Sources

T1 primary record · T2 reporting · T3 partisan

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Cite or export this case

Citizens' Accountability Ledger, "₹16 lakh crore written off. About 16% recovered." (2014 to 2025 (cumulative)), case-46. https://whoisresponsible.xyz/case/case-46/

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