Chidambaram to visit Mumbai today

On his agenda are meetings with officials of RBI, Sebi and stock exchanges as well as institutional investors

P Chidambaram is set to visit Mumbai on Saturday for the first time after taking over as finance minister.

On his agenda are meetings with officials of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and stock exchanges. The minister will also meet institutional investors.

According to senior government officials, Chidambaram’s schedule will begin from Mint Road, headquarters of the RBI, where he is expected to discuss the fiscal and monetary situation with the top brass of the banking regulator.

The minister is expected to impress upon the RBI that the government is serious about bringing down the fiscal deficit, and encourage the apex bank to cut rates. The government also wants the RBI to speed up work for giving licences for new banks.

 

Recently, Chidambaram had said, “The government expects the RBI to respond to the fiscal measures that have been taken. Now the central bank should take some monetary decisions (cut key rates) to support growth, in tandem with the government.”

The RBI is scheduled to announce the second quarter review of monetary policy on October 30.

Chidambaram will also visit the Sebi headquarters in the Bandra-Kurla Complex, where he will address the board meeting. Sebi is expected to announce some investor-friendly measures after the meeting.

“The Sebi board is likely to announce measures towards lowering transaction costs, relaxing collateral norms for foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and other intermediary-friendly measures,” a source told Business Standard.

“Sebi is likely to discuss the implementation and deadline for achieving the reduced initial public offering timeline of seven days from 12 days.”

Chidambaram would then meet representatives of stock exchanges. Later, he is to address select FIIs and domestic investors at the Trident hotel in Bandra-Kurla Complex.