Corporate Debt Restructuring cell of Reserve Bank of India, which has eased loan repayment worth Rs 3.7 lakh crore for top-end businessmen of the country, has refused to reply to an RTI query about its operations saying transparency law does not apply on it. 

Former Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi had sought to know from the CDR cell the expenditure on it during financial year 2013-14 and how much out of it was financed by public sector banks and IDBI bank. 

He also sought to know about various audits the CDR system had undergone during financial year, final CDR packages approved between April 1, 2012 to March 31, 2014. 

Gandhi also asked the total "sacrifice amount" of all public sector banks as reported in the final CDR package approved by CDR system and related information. 

To his surprise, the CDR cell which is constituted by RBI, a public authority under the RTI Act and is dominated by public servants, refused to provide any information saying the RTI Act does not apply on it. 

"CDR is a self-empowered body, which provides broad guidelines and policies to be followed by itself and the administrative, operating and other costs of CDR cell is shared by all financial institutions and Banks. 

"Further CDR is neither owned, controlled or substantially financed directly or indirectly by funds provided by the appropriate government. Hence, CDR cell is not a public authority as defined under Section 2(1)(h) of the RTI Act," the CDR cell said. 

When contacted Gandhi, who is known for delivering number of landmark decisions at theCentral Information Commission, said, "When a bank loan appears to be turning bad, it is called a non-performing asset (NPA). When a bank account is restructured it is not listed as NPA. This is a device used to give one more chance to a losing corporate on the verge of becoming a bad debt. 

"The CDR cell has no legal status but has 'restructured' corporate debt of Rs 3,70,000 crores for 505 borrowers! Since the average is Rs 638 crores, it is obvious that most of these are big corporates," he alleged. 

In his first appeal, Gandhi pointed it out to senior officials of CDR cell that it is their statutory obligation to respond to RTI queries as five out its seven core members are public servants drawing their salaries from the government, which makes it a public authority. 

"Core Committee members or the employees do not determine the character and the nature of the control exercised by the appropriate government. The control of the government in the management or functioning of the body is more relevant than the number of public servants working in the CDR Cell," Prakash Joshi, DGM, CDR cell said. 

He further said, Bank officers are considered as 'public servants' only for limited purpose. 

"In the circumstances, we are considered to reiterate the view that CDR is not a public authority under the RTI Act, and hence we are unable to entertain any application under the RTI Act," Joshi said. 

The members of core group of the CDR cell include Chairman and Managing Director, Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI), Chairman of State Bank of India, Managing Director and CEO of ICICI Bank Limited, CMDs of Punjab National BankBSE , Bank of India(BoI), Bank of Baroda and Chairman, Indian Banks Association. 

According to the CDR website, the CDR mechanism covers only multiple banking accounts, syndication/consortium accounts, where all banks and institutions together have an outstanding aggregate exposure of Rs 100 million and above. (Economic Times)