NDA has made public bank appointments transparent, says Piyush Goyal

Charging the erstwhile UPA government with politically interfering in appointments to the management of public sector banks, former finance minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said the NDA government has lent complete transparency for the same. 

At a banking event organised by the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), Goyal said phone calls used to go from the political class in the previous government to banks for disbursal of loans or for appointments. “Not a single phone call has gone from political class or bureaucrats to the department of financial services in our time,” he said. To a query from the floor that the Centre still interferes in appointment of directors, he said interference has also gone down substantially. 

However, these appointments have to be made sometimes, to give representation to certain sections of the society that are not heard in the banking system, he said. He alleged that the banks were hiding bad debts and artificially jacking up profits during the UPA regime.