Union finance minister Jaswant Singh will meet representatives of urban co-operative banks (UCBs) from across the country on July 27 in Mumbai to hear out the problems being faced by them even as he appointed a committee to look into specific issues of the sector and recommend solutions within a month.
At the meeting of the Consultative Committee of Parliament on Finance held today in Delhi under the chairmanship of the Singh, several members of parliament voiced their concern about the various aspects of banking policy including the issues facing the UCBs.
The FM, after hearing out the people's representatives, appointed E K Thakur, MP and principal advisor of the Saraswat Co-operative Bank, as chairman of a committee that will hold consultations with the UCBs, MPs and the minister of state for finance, Anant Gite. The committee is expected to submit its report to Singh in a month.
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According to D R Shirdokar, managing director, Saraswat Co-operative Bank, the problems being faced by UCBs, among others, include cheques, demand drafts, bank guarantees and bank orders issued by them not being honoured by certain oil companies and banks; restrictions placed on them in their treasury operations; the ban on inter bank deposits by the central bank; and exclusion of the banks from the recent ordinance on enforcement of securities.
"When prudential norms as applicable to the mainstream banks are made applicable to co-operative banks then why should we be discriminated against," said Satish Marathe, chief executive officer, Janakalyan Sahakari Bank.