FM Arun Jaitley meets select bankers to take stock of demonetisation

NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley met heads of state-run banks on Monday to take stock of demonetsiation and discuss issues related to Union Budget 2017-18. A senior finance ministry official confirmed the development and said, “We had discussions on a number of issues including operational ones related to demonetisation. There were also some budget-related issues discussed with bankers.”

Some of the bankers, who attended the meeting, included Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairperson of State Bank of India, Rajeev Rishi, chairman of Central Bank of India and also the head of Indian Banks' Association, and Usha Ananthasubramanian, MD & CEO of Punjab National Bank, among others.

The meeting was also attended by Nripendra Misra, principal secretary to Prime Minister, said an official privy to the developments.

The RBI is expected to extend the restrictions on withdrawal of cash from banks and ATMs beyond December 30 as the currency supply situation is yet normalise. At present, the government has fixed a limit of Rs 24,000 per week on withdrawal from bank accounts and Rs 2,500 per day from ATMs to ensure everyone gets cash. Last week, SBI’s Bhattacharya had said that restrictions on cash withdrawal may go down slowly.

“The restrictions will be decreased over a period of time. Nobody wants everyone rushing to banks, thinking there are no restrictions so let me get back everything,” she had said to a query.