From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Congress on Thursday expressed concern that the debt being offered on a platter to some friends of the government like Gautam Adani, has created an anxious position for the nation on top of the national debt obligations.
Its spokesman Gourav Vallabh told a press conference that this is a serious matter since the outstanding internal and external debts and liabilities of the Centre at the end of 2022-23 are estimated to book to Rs 152.17 lakh crore as agains Rs 55.9 lakh crore in 2013-14. In simple terms, the debt per head increased from Rs 43,124 to Rs 1.09 lakh, a booming jump of 1525 in the last nine years.
He referred to a recent report by the New York-based credit research firm Credit Sights on the startling debt position of the Adani group as its total gross debt is close to Rs 2.3 trillion (Rs 2 lakh, 30,000 crore).
The report notes limited equity capital injections by Gautam Adani and family while foraying into new or unrelated businesses, taking environmental, sicial and governance risks.
Prof. Gourav Vallabh fired three straight questions:
— Who in the government pressurized banks such as SBI to grant loans of such proportions, putting the national economy and banks at colossal risk?
— Why are the Finance Ministry and SEBI sitting tight on the entire hostile acquisition episode of a leading NDTV channel? and
— How the government save the economy from the collateral and cascading damage in case of default of loan repayment as the Adani group’s debt is consistently increasing?
Out of the major loans obtained by the Adani Group from April 2020 to June 2022 amounting to Rs 48,000, 40% of Rs 18,770 crore funded by the State Bank of India alone while remaining 60% (Rs 29,000) funded by 14 global and private banks. The professor said this exposes the most prominent Indian bank to a huge risk.
He said the report highlights that these businesses do not make profits in the initial few years, and hence there is a likelihood of rolling-over / refinancing for interest obligations, for which they would again have to reach out to banks. The report calls out that overly ambitious debt-funded growth plans could eventually spiral into a massive debt trap.
The Credit Sights puts blatantly that “Gautam Adani enjoys healthy relations with the ruling Modi administration as he and Prime Minister Modi know each other well, going back to the latter’s days as the chief minister of Gujarat.”
Prof. Gourav Vallabh recalled how the chairman of the Sri Lankan state-owned Ceylon Electricity Board claimed before a parliamentary panel that PM Narendra Modi ji pressurized Sri Lankan President Shri Gotabaya Rajapaksa to award a wind power project to the Adani Group. Also, As soon as the Modi government came to power in 2014, SBI drafted an in-principal agreement with the Adani group for a $1 Billion facility and brought in several banks worldwide to provide funding. After constant protests, SBI backed off and scrapped the MoU. In 2020, news of another Rs. 5,000 crore loan by State Bank of India to Adani’s Carmichael coal project in Australia became public. Pressure by investors such as Amundi and AXA led to SBI’s loan stuck. There have been no further updates since last year about the loan status.
He said the latest gimmick has been the stealthy acquisition of 29.19% stake by the Adani Group in a leading television news channel (NDTV). This was executed without any input from, conversation with, or consent of the channel founders. The Adani group also announced an open offer to buy another 26% stake.
