New Delhi | The Congress on Wednesday accused the government of distributing "freebies" worth Rs 12 lakh crore to its billionaire friends through loan write-offs over the past nine years, and said "robbing the poor to benefit the rich" is the Narendra Modi dispensation's mantra.

The opposition party's attack came over the government's reply in the Rajya Sabha that public sector banks (PSBs) have written off an aggregate loan amount of Rs 12,08,828 crore, from the financial year 2015-16 to the financial year 2024-25 (provisional data).

In a post in Hindi on X, Kharge said, "The Modi government has distributed 'freebies' worth 12 lakh crore to its billionaire friends through loan write-offs over the past nine years." Economic inequality in the country is at its peak in 100 years, yet the Modi government is squandering lakhs of crores from public sector banks on its "friends", the Congress president alleged.

"Robbing the poor to benefit the rich is the core mantra of the Modi government's economic policy!" he claimed.

In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, Minister of State in the Finance Ministry Pankaj Chaudhary said, "As per the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data, public sector banks (PSBs) have written-off an aggregate loan amount of Rs. 12,08,828 crore, from the financial year 2015-16 to financial year 2024-25 (provisional data).

"Banks write off non-performing assets (NPAs), including, inter alia, those in respect of which full provisioning has been made on completion of four years, as per RBI guidelines and policy approved by banks' Boards. Such write-off does not result in waiver of liabilities of borrowers and therefore, it does not benefit the borrower," the minister said.

The borrowers continue to be liable for repayment, and banks continue to pursue recovery actions initiated in these accounts, he had said.