\Slokmat news network
Nagpur, Oct 21
Following Covid-19 outbreak, Reserve Bank of India announced a moratorium on deduction of principal and interest from the loan account of traders, businessmen and salaried class for a period of six months.
However, despite these instructions from RBI, nationalised banks have been deducting three tranches of interest in a single month, without informing the borrowers.
Many complainants told Lokmat Times that only in the last month, Bank of India in many of its branhes deducted three instalments simultaneously.
On inestigation, a victim of this policy showed bank statement to this customer which shows that the bank had indeed deducted three installments simultaneously in a month from the borrower’s account.Bank accounts of many borrowers, as a result, are showing negative balance. Hence, the big question they are facing is how to adjust their spend as their accounts show zero balance.
As per the statement of Bank of India, the borrower had obtained home loan from the Sitabuldi branch of Bank of India in June 2012.
The said borrower is paying installments of the bank regularly, though, the RBI in a policy decision had announced that no installments or interest would be deducted.
As soon as he, received his salary for the month of October, his another two installments of ` 16,170 were deducted.
On October 17, his third insallment of ` 1795 was deducted, leaving zero balance in his account.
This incident is not an isolated one which proves that Bank of India has defied the directions of Reserve Bank of India.
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After moratorioum, the banks had given two options of ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ to the customers.
The banks are deducting installments on the basis of their approval. Similarly, installments of those who are getting their salaries regularly, are deducted while others who have not received their pay regularly are exempt from deduction.
Vilas Parate, deputy general manager, Bank of India.