Government open to giving more powers to RBI, says Finance Minister Piyush Goyal

NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Piyush Goyal has said the government is open to giving more powers to Reserve Bank of India to deal more effectively with frauds like the ones allegedly committed by diamond jeweller Nirav Modi in Punjab National Bank, a week after RBI governor Urjit Patel sought more power to deal with Public Sector Banks.

“I do not personally believe there is any shortage of powers but we will have discussion with RBI and sort them out... If any more additional powers are required, government is open to that,” Goyal told reporters after meeting heads of Public Sector Banks here.

On June 12, Urjit Patel had appeared before the Parliamentary Standing Committee, where he said that the central bank needs more regulatory powers, citing at least 10 areas regarding effectively regulating Public Sector Banks.

Goyal who met the head of PSB’s for the second time this month to discuss the issue of NPAs and better governance of the Public Sector Banks, told that public money is safe with the Public Sector Banks and “frauds are being perpetrated by private sectors and not by public sector”.

To improve the credit, he said that the Centre has decided to adopt a two-pronged approach to enhance the functioning of Public Sector Banks by “ironing out issues of consortium-based lending” and identifying “good borrowers.

He said that bank chiefs have “made decision” to extend credit to Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and “genuine small businesses”

“One of the thoughts before the PSBs has been that they will have to get into the act of working to support MSMEs and genuine good companies who need working capital finances or loans or investment asset but have had some difficulty in the past,” Goyal said.