New Delhi, Dec 12 (IANS): Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday clarified in the Parliament that the government has not waived off loans availed by big companies.

Replying to a question in the Lok Sabha by CPI member K. Subbarayan, who sought to know whether the government will waive off education loans of poor students who are pursuing higher education, just as the "government has written off several lakhs of crores rupees for the big companies", Sitharaman said that "we have not waived off the loans availed by big companies".

"Write-off is something different from waiving-off. We should understand this. We have not written off to anyone. This is one point. Secondly, if there are NPAs and such NPAs are written off, on the basis of their securities submitted with the banks, we are collecting back those amounts from those companies," she said.

The Finance Minister said that "this money is coming to the banks. You can very well suggest for waiving off the educational loans. But I want to humbly state that... you cannot compare the money of the defaulters and the educational loans given to students. The member can very well suggest that the educational loans should be waived off. But he cannot state... that we have collected back educational loans and given that amount to big companies".

"We have not written off to anyone. It is wrong to say that by way of writing off we are taking that amount as our loss," she added.