Govt to speed up work at debt tribunals for early recoveries: Arun Jaitley

Bureaucracy, fear of penal action dampen decision making at PSBs

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday said the government would take steps to quicken decision making at debt recovery tribunals (DRTs) to help banks make prompt recovery from defaulters.

While addressing board members of State Bank of India (SBI) in the financial capital, Jaitley said much of the process would be made online and a specific time frame indicated for hearing in the tribunal.

SBI Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya briefed the media on the finance minister's address to the board. Jaitley emphasised on giving more educational loans, she said.

Later, at the launch of the lender's mobile wallet app, SBI Buddy, the finance minister said state-owned enterprises, including public sector banks find it difficult to compete with private enterprises. Government-run entities are often hamstrung by bureaucratic decision- making while their private sector counterparts are able take quick decisions.
 

PSBs face serious challenges such as curbs on recruiting talent from college campuses and fear of penal action for any erroneous decision. And, therefore, PSBs have a more defensive way of working. Despite this, they did a commendable job and SBI had been the market leader despite this, she said.

Later, addressing media queries, Hasmukh Adhia, secretary, financial services, said the new performance review framework for top executives of PSBs will come into effect from this financial year.



Last Friday, the finance ministry had launched a seven point reform programme for the public sector banks, named as Indradhanush. In the seven-point agenda, accountability framework was one of the area in which the government proposed a new framework of  Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in order to measure the performance of PSBs. KPIs were divided into four sections, totalling up to 100 marks.

Apart from these, the government also said the KPI framework would be linked to the performance bonus to be paid to the managing director and chief executive officers of banks by the government. For this purpose, the government is considering employee stock options for the top management of PSBs.

SBI's mobile wallet app can be used to send money to new and registered customers, book movies and hotels, as well as for shopping. It also has features like reminders to settle dues, recharge and pay bills instantly.

The finance minister also unveiled the brand logo and website for SBI Foundation, an arm set up to implement corporate social responsibility of the State Bank of India group.