The Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on November 23 will meet chief executives of public sector banks (PSBs) to review banks' performance during the second quarter this fiscal besides other thrust areas like credit flow and priority sector lending.
This meeting -- probably for the first time -- would see several ministries like Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises(MSME), Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) , Ministry of Food Processing and Ministry of Textiles discuss with bank Chiefs funding related issues affecting their sectors.
While Ministry of MSME will discuss issues related to MSME financing, the Ministry of MNRE will discuss status of commitment given by banks for funding of renewable energy projects in the next five years.
The Ministry of Food Processing would discuss utilisation of special fund of ₹2,000 crore set up by the Finance Ministry to provide affordable credit to designated food parks (including mega food parks) and food processing units located therein.
Ministry of Textiles will discuss implementation of revival, reform and restructuring package for handloom sector and institutional credit to sericulture while Ministry of Rural Development will discuss SHG credit linkage plan among others.
November 23’s meeting will also see review of credit flow to productive segments of the economy besides status of Indradhanush, the seven pronged strategy announced in August this year to revamp functioning of public sector banks.
Jaitley is also expected to review the extent of lending rate cuts undertaken by PSBs post the RBI move in September this year to go in for a higher-than-expected 0.5 per cent cut in policy rate.
The RBI's benchmark repurchase rate (repo) has come down from 7.25 per cent to 6.75 per cent, the lowest in four-and-a-half years.