Congress questions ED over relaxation to Paytm after RBI action

In response to the RBI's strict regulatory action against Paytm Payments Bank Limited, the Congress has raised questioned the Enforcement Directorate (ED)

Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate also voiced concerns over the ED's focus on political figures, citing that an overwhelming majority of cases were targeted at politicians.

"Why was Paytm payments bank given such a long relaxation despite so many violations? What steps has ED taken so far on serious allegations like money laundering? How much did Paytm donate to the BJP and the PM Cares Fund," said Shrinate, as per reports.

"Is the ED satisfied by initiating 95 per cent of cases against political people? Is the data of Paytm consumers confidential or is it being shared with the BJP," she asked.

Last week, the RBI ordered Paytm Payments Bank Ltd to not take any further deposits or conduct credit transactions or carry out top-ups on any customers' accounts, prepaid instruments, wallets, cards for paying road tolls after February 29.

Media reports that have claimed that the company and its CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma are being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection to money laundering have made the situation more volatile.

However, on February 4, Paytm clarified that neither One97 Communications, the parent company of the Paytm brand, nor its CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma, were under investigation by the probe agency for money laundering activities.

Shrinate today stated that the RBI inspected 35 crore Paytm wallets, out of which 31 crore wallets were found inactive and that a single PAN card was found linked to thousands of accounts. She added that the KYC of lakhs of accounts was not done and false compliance reports were being given by the bank.

"Paytm has already been accused of sharing its data with the BJP. The RBI has several times expressed concern over the transaction data traffic between Paytm Payments Bank and Paytm, but Vijay Shekhar Sharma did not take any action. Paytm flouted a lot of rules and regulations without any fear," she said, as per media reports.

The RBI had also expressed concerns about the shareholding of the payments bank, she said.

Shrinate said a major reason for the RBI action was that most of Paytm’s investment was by Chinese companies, which included Alibaba. Even now Ant Group had about a 10 per cent partnership, she said.