NPA effect: Norms for Chartered Accountants, advocates soon

Public sector banks, saddled with a pile of non performing assets—loans that do not fetch returns—could soon frame stringent rules allowing them to take action against service providers such as chartered accountants and advocates if required. The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has asked banks to look into the issue and come up with appropriate guidelines as bank officials should not be solely held responsible for the rise in bad loans, which rose by Rs 94,666 crore in the April to December period of 2015-­16. Sources said two out of 10 loan applications are being rejected due to the NPA pressure even as finance minister Arun Jaitley has asked banks not to adopt an over cautious approach. “At present, the bank officials are taking the entire responsibility (over the issue of NPA) but this is a narrow way of dealing with the problem and the role of the CAs, lawyers must be scrutinised and a framework needs to be designed so that they are accountable too,” said an official source. The CVC has also raised the issue with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI)