December 12, 2024 21:46 (IST)
Follow us:
facebook-white sharing button
twitter-white sharing button
instagram-white sharing button
youtube-white sharing button
UP teenager kills mother, lives with body for 5 days | At least six people including a child killed in Tamil Nadu hospital fire | Amid Atul Subhash row, SC says mere harassment is not enough to prove abetment to suicide | India's D Gukesh becomes youngest ever world champion in chess | Devendra Fadnavis meets PM Modi amid suspense over Maharashtra portfolio allocation | Congress wants to deviate the issue of Sonia Gandhi-George Soros link: JP Nadda | Bengaluru techie suicide: Atul Subhash's family demanded Rs. 10 lakh as dowry leading to my father's death, claims estranged wife | Syria rebels torch tomb of ousted president Bashar al-Assad's father | Donald Trump vows to eliminate birthright citizenship after taking charge | No alliance with Congress in Delhi polls: AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal

Let PNB fraud not halt business lending: ASSOCHAM

| | Feb 25, 2018, at 09:17 pm

New Delhi, Feb 25 (IBNS): ASSOCHAM has cautioned against allowing the alleged fraud in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) to halt the entire system of corporate lending as demoralisation would set in among the top functionaries and employees of the state-owned banks, something the country can ill-afford at a time when the credit growth was about to recover and economy was set to grow at a higher pace.

“While we may seek long–term solutions like privatisation of the banks, the need of this hour is to rally around honest bank officers and the honest business entities which have built trust on each other. Let one or a few black sheep not derail our financial system, which is resilient enough to withstand this kind of shocks, though ideally such jolts are better avoided and averted through systemic reforms,” ASSOCHAM Secretary General D.S. Rawat said.

ASSOCHAM noted that there are disturbing reports about banks clamping down certain impractical rules and procedures for trade finance, affecting both importers and exporters. “The letters of credit or letters of undertaking are an internationally accepted system of global trade. While we need to ensure safe and sound functioning of the system and not allow loopholes like those in the PNB system of money or guarantee transfer, let banks not over-react and hit the trade and industry.”

The January export data shows a deceleration in growth even when the global economy is on the uptick. The prick up in the domestic economy would require higher imports. Thus, both imports and exports are key to our economy and we have come a long way in scaling up the inter-face between the government agencies and the trade over the years. It is time to correct the systems which had allowed the misuse and move on with the task of achieving higher economic growth.

“How else we encourage investment and jobs if we do not infuse confidence and trust in our financial system.”

The ASSOCHAM urged the Finance Ministry (FinMin) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to send strong messages across different stakeholders about the robustness of the Indian financial sector, giving, though a tough warning against offenders.

“By all means, punish the offenders at a fast speed and set examples; but the business should not be allowed to halt. There is a need for vigilance among all the lenders, even in the private sector. After all, in an ever-connected world there are several common technology pathways, which can be subverted. It is about time to restore confidence and move on.”


 

Support Our Journalism

We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism

IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.

Support objective journalism for a small contribution.