NEW DELHI: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman strongly rebutted Congress MP Rahul Gandhi ’s claims on banks writing off bad debt of Rs 68,600 crore, saying that facts had been taken out of context.“Provisions are made for NPAs as per the four-year provisioning cycle laid down by the RBI. Upon full provisioning being done, banks write off the fully provided NPA but continue to pursue recovery against the borrower. No loan is waived off,” she said in a series of tweets. She then hit back at UPA saying banks wrote off Rs 1.4 lakh crore between 2009-10 and 2013-14.“Those defaulters who do not repay despite having capacity to pay, divert or siphon off funds, or dispose of secured assets without bank’s permission are categorised as wilful defaulters . They are those well connected promoters who benefited from UPA’s ‘phone banking’,” the finance minister said.After an RTI reply by the RBI named the country’s top 50 bank defaulters, Rahul on Tuesday alleged that the government did not answer his question on the issue in Parliament in March because the defaulters included “BJP’s friends”.CPM too slammed the Modi government for writing off loans of “crony capitalists” while being blind to the misery of the poor.RBI sources clarified that it has not written off any loans as the loans are advanced by banks.Also, when banks write off loans, they use their operating profits to make provisions so that they do not have to depend on the repayment to meet depositor liabilities. However, there is no waiver of borrowers’ liability and they pursue recovery from the borrowers by attaching property and in courts.