Finance Ministry holds high-level meeting to expedite recovery of debt

New Delhi, Feb 17: A high-level meeting chaired by the Secretary of the Finance Ministry’s Department of Financial Services, Vivek Joshi, on Saturday discussed steps to expedite the recovery of debt and enhance the efficiency of debt recovery tribunals.

The meeting was attended by Chairpersons of Debt Recovery Appellate Tribunals (DRATs) and Presiding Officers of Debt Recovery Tribunals (DRTs).

Senior officers from Public and Private Sectors Banks; Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Indian Bank Association (IBA); and senior officers from the Ministry of Finance and Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) also attended the meeting.

The main issues discussed during the meeting included:

* DRTs and DRATs to take all possible steps to reduce pendency at various stages through strict monitoring.

* Several suggestions regarding changes and amendments in Debts Recovery Tribunal Regulations, SARFAESI Act and RDB Act discussed to make the process of recovery more efficient.

* Banks to conduct periodical review of the performance of empanelled Advocates and rationalise the assignment of cases to the empanelled advocates taking into account their performance.

* Leveraging the under development e-Auction platform for listing and auction of properties of banks and financial institutions under the provisions of various Acts- SARFAESI Act, 2002, RDB Act, 1993 and IBC, 2016.

* Banks and Financial Institutions to reconcile cases which are pending in DRTs and DRATs but have already been settled.

* Banks to ensure presence of their officers at all the hearings of their respective cases before judicial forums.