Banks want govt to focus on public spending over fiscal deficit road map

The institutions wanted incentives to encourage cashless transactions through debit/credit cards and rationalisation of interest rate of small savings schemes

Banks and financial institutions pitched for a delay in the fiscal deficit road map and for more focus on greater public spending to ensure economic revival, at a pre-Budget meeting with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday.

The institutions also wanted incentives to encourage cashless transactions through debit/credit cards and rationalisation of interest rate of small savings schemes.


The two-hour meeting saw heads of the country's public and private sector banks - including State Bank of India, Axis Bank, Bank of Baroda, ICICI Bank, LIC, IIFCL, IDBI Bank, NABARD, Citi Bank and L&T Finance Holdings - discuss key measures that could be introduced in the Budget to ensure economic growth revival.

Jaitley told bankers that the government would continue to focus on governance reforms in the banking sector. He added that there was a considerable improvement in the opening of basic savings bank deposit accounts (BSDAs) during the year 2015-16 under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana. "BSDAs reached 440 million for the period ended September 2015 as against 398 million for the year ended March 2015," he said.

Aditya Puri, managing director, HDFC Bank, said: "The key issue that was discussed was how to push growth. It was suggested that the fiscal deficit glide path may be delayed. There needs to be a balance between growth and fiscal consolidation."

The government plans to contain the fiscal deficit at 3.9 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the current financial year and further narrow it to 3.5 per cent in the next.

Bankers suggested rationalisation of interest rates of small savings schemes and fixing these at the five-year government security yields. This alignment could be done on a quarterly basis so that small savings rate does not become an impediment in the monetary transmission process, they recommended. Bankers were of the view that high interest rate on small saving schemes made it difficult for them to transmit the entire policy rate reduction by RBI to borrowers. Small saving deposits rate ranges between 8.7 and 9.3 per cent.

Smalls saving schemes include post office monthly income scheme, public provident fund, senior citizens' savings scheme and Sukanya Samriddhi Account.

State Bank of India has recommended differential interest rates on small savings according to age groups, similar to what banks offer senior citizens. It also suggested to encourage household savings, the Centre consider increasing the maximum limit of savings in PPF account to at least Rs 2 lakh from Rs 1.5 lakh.

Other recommendations included increasing the exemption limit to Rs 2.5 lakh for savings under the Income Tax Act and allowing banks to issue offshore INR bonds to cater to infrastructure requirements.

YES Bank's Rana Kapoor said, "The finance sector needs the next generation of reforms. India's top priorities should include passage of goods and services tax, rationalisation of direct taxes further, tax sops for start-ups, and introducing key structural reforms in terms of real estate, MSMEs and labour. I am hopeful that economic clairvoyance will triumph over political myopia in 2016 and GST will see the light of the day."

Social sector wish list

Representatives of the social sector also met Jaitley and his team of senior policymakers on Tuesday for pre-Budget consultations.

The various non-government organisations and social sector interest groups present at the meeting requested the minister for a big increase in the health care budget and an increase in the so-called sin taxes on petroleum and alcohol products.

The social sector representatives also sought an increase in allocation to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS).

"We have sought from the finance minister an increase in the health budget to 2.5 per cent of GDP," Bhavna Mukhopadhyay of the Voluntary Health Association of India told reporters after the meeting. Currently, the combined total of various health scheme allocations is less than 1 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).

Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian had in a report on the Goods and Services Tax (GST) suggested a sin tax of 40 per cent. The tax was to be levied on products such as alcohol, tobacco and aerated soft drinks.

Mathew Cherian of HelpAge India suggested an increase in allocation of MNREGA by at least Rs 5,000 crore. Jaitley had allocated Rs 34,000 crore for the scheme in the 2015-16 Budget and later allocated Rs 8,000 crore extra in the first supplementary demand of grants.