Singh Favours Soft Interest Rates

Finance minister Jaswant Singh today said he was in favour of softer interest rates. Replying to a query in the Lok Sabha today, Singh said interest rates on bank loans should come down.

He said there was an unacceptable difference of 3 to 4 per cent between the deposit and the lending rates of banks, especially the public sector ones. And despite this difference, bank profits were under pressure because the administrative costs were high, he added.

On the issue of fake currency, Singh said the problem did exist but it was not wide-spread and magnifying it might