Mumbai-based laminates maker Shirdi Industries. Its chairman until July 2010 – a period when loans were raised and delayed payments first red-flagged by Crisil – was Piyush Goyal, now railways minister and the Modi government’s chief troubleshooter.
Even as they defaulted on the money they owed government banks, Shirdi’s promoters also extended an unsecured loan via another entity to a company run by Goyal’s wife, Intercon Advisers Pvt Limited. This loan, they told The Wire, was granted “out of friendship.” The last statutory filing done by Intercon for FY 2016 shows an outstanding amount of Rs 1.59 crore to Asis Industries, a company owned by Shirdi promoters. Even as Asis extended its loan to Goyal’s wife’s firm, Shirdi also had a Rs 4 crore provident fund default.
Unsecured loan to Piyush Goyal’s wife
That’s not all. According to filings made with regulators, Intercon Advisors Private Limited – a company wholly owned by Piyush Goyal’s wife, Seema, and son, Dhruv Goyal – lists an outstanding unsecured short-term borrowing of Rs 1.59 crore from Asis Industries in FY 2016 – an “inter corporate deposit repayable on demand” at 12% interest.
Agarwal denied there was anything untoward in his company – whose subsidiary was defaulting on money owed to government banks – making an unsecured loan to a company owned by a minister’s wife and son.
“This amount (unsecured loan) was given a few years ago. At that time we had money and I was requested if I can spare money and given our friendship I did. But this loan was given from Asis Industries, which is the holding company of Shirdi. Asis, therefore, is not the defaulter company,” says Agarwal. He would not say when exactly this loan was first made.
Questions to Piyush Goyal remained unanswered till the time of publication, His answers will be added to this story when they are received.
Coincidentally, Piyush Goyal has been a government nominee on the board of two state owned banks – Bank of Baroda during the Vajpayee-run NDA government, and State Bank of India from 2004-2008 during the Manmohan Singh government’s tenure. It is only in 2008, after he exited the SBI board, that Goyal became chairman and a director of Shirdi Industries according to filings made by the company.
In 2010, Goyal was made the treasurer of the BJP and nominated to the Rajya Sabha. He was nominated to the parliamentary committee of finance the same year. This is the committee that oversees the performance of financial institutions, including banks.
Shirdi Industries has not only defaulted on loan repayments but was also referred to the National Company Law Tribunal where its creditor banks agreed to take a 60% haircut – banking parlance for a part write-off – on the debt owed by the company.... Read more : https://thewire.in/politics/promote...-rs-650-crore-has-ties-to-piyush-goyal-family
The idea was to not give the same promoters another chance as they had defaulted on loan repayments. But with Shirdi Industries, an exception was made and the same promoters were allowed to buy their insolvent company after a 65% loan write off by banks. The reason given was 99% of the banks had agreed on a revival package before the November 2017 amendment disallowing the original promoters to bid for their company under auction by NCLT.
https://thewire.in/political-econom...rrounding-shirdi-industries-remain-unanswered
