No need to intervene in functioning of regulators: Pranab

NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today ruled out government intervention in the functioning of financial regulators saying they were doing a "good job".

"I do not think there is a need for intervention by the government in the functioning of financial regulators," he said during Question Hour in the Lok Sabha.

Regulators needed to be given autonomy so that they can discharge their functions as per the law, he said in an answer to a question on whether government was planning to intervene in the functioning of financial regulators given the rash of scams.

Mukherjee said the laws governing the financial regulators have provisions enabling government to issue directions on policy matters.

"So far the policy matters are concerned, Section 3 of all the three Acts - RBI Act, SEBI Act and IRDA Act - have provisions that allow government to issue directives to regulators on matters of policy," he said.

The Finance Minister said the three financial regulators -- RBI, SEBI and IRDA -- submit their annual reports to Parliament which in turn has the authority to check any gross irregularity by them.

He said the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority was set up through an administrative resolution and the government was contemplating bringing in a bill.