New Delhi, Apr 28 (IANS): The Congress on Tuesday slammed the government for writing off loans of top fifty wilful defaulters to the tune of Rs 68,607 crore, saying the government and the Finance Minister should come clean on it. The Congress charged the BJP with helping the defaulters.

"Till April 24, Rs 68,607 crore have been written off by the government. The Prime Minister can not evade this question by keeping silent," said Congress Chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala.

The Congress said Rahul Gandhi had asked this question in Parliament, but the government did not respond. "But now an RTI has revealed the magnitude of the waiver," he said.

"As much as Rs 8,048 crore have been written off of Mahul Choksi and Nirav Modi. Another diamond merchant Jatin Mehta's Rs 6,048 crore too have been written off, and so is the case with Kingfisher's Vijay Mallya. Similar is the case with the relations of these defaulters," said Surjewala.

The Congress said the "Jan-Dhan Gaban Yojna cannot go without the knowledge of the top echelon of the government, including the Prime Minister".

The party said such write-offs have come to light at a time when the government is freezing Dearness Allowance of the Central government employees and the Army personnel.

The Congress alleged that in the last 5.5 years, the government has written off Rs 5.10 lakh crore of the default money till september 2019. "Now this amount has gone up to Rs 6.66 lakh crore".

The Congress has said the government is not willing to give an economic package of Rs 1 lakh crore to the states during the pandemic.

"Will the government take any action against wilful defaulters still in the country?" asked the party Social media handle.