Union Budget 2024: Finance Minister Announces Plans To Strengthen India's Debt Recovery and Bankruptcy Process

In a significant move aimed at enhancing the efficacy of India's financial and legal systems, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the establishment of an integrated technology platform to improve outcomes under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). This initiative is part of a broader strategy to strengthen Debt Recovery Tribunals (DRTs) and establish additional tribunals to expedite the debt recovery process.  The introduction of an integrated technology platform is a forward-thinking step aimed at addressing these challenges by leveraging technology to ensure more efficient case management, better coordination among stakeholders, and enhanced transparency in the process.

While presenting the Union Budget for 2024-25, she proposed the development of digital public infra application for productivity gains, business opportunities and innovation by the private sector. She informed that the IBC has resolved more than 1,000 cases, which has resulted in realisation of Rs 3.3 lakh crore to creditors. Defaults worth Rs 10.2 lakh crore have been settled at the stage of pre-admission of insolvency cases since the inception of IBC in 2016, and more than one-fifth of the companies undergoing resolution process are from the real estate space, the Economic Survey said on Monday.

Since FY18, the IBC has enabled over Rs 3 lakh crore recovery for banks, which was much more than what lenders recovered through previous mechanisms of Lok Adalats, DRTs, and the SARFAESI Act, it said.Since the implementation of IBC in 2016, a total of 31,394 corporate debtors cases "involving a value of Rs 13.9 lakh crore" have been disposed of (including pre-admission case disposals) as of March 2024.