The Centre on Tuesday ruled out in the Supreme Court the waiver of interest on loans availed during the six-month moratorium period ending August 31, saying it would cost the bank Rs 6 lakh crore and any such move would raise serious questions on their survival.

Appearing for the Union finance ministry, solicitor-general Tushar Mehta told a bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan that if the interest is waived off on all the types of loans the amount forgone would be over Rs 6 lakh crore and this was precisely the reason why interest waiver was not even considered by the government.

The bench was dealing with a batch of petitions filed by various business sectors seeking waiver of interests on loans in view of the pandemic as according to them the government cannot be discriminatory by waiving of only compound interests on those who had availed loans worth Rs 2 crore or less.