The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is keen on the amendment of the banking regulation bill and the central bank wants powers including inspection of associates and dissolution of the bank board. They are keen about mandating these through the amendment of the banking regulation bill........
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The report reads:
“The finance minister, P Chidambaram feels that the current guidelines also mandate these and hence, the amendment of the bill is not necessary. But, he has promised the RBI that the bill will be amended. He has also written to them saying that they should begin the process of applications for new banking licenses and the process will take about six to eight months.”
FM must be having reliable sources to confirm his feeling. If an amendment is not necessary to ‘give’ the powers sought by RBI(which include powers to supersede the board, to authorize the acquisition of shares beyond five per cent as well as powers for consolidated supervision and dispensation necessary to deal with companies that entered the banking sector), why not convince RBI about the position? During October, reports were there that FM had asked RBI officials whether the banking regulator could be given these powers without an amendment to the Banking Regulation Act. RBI Governor said in an interview on October 31 that RBI could not offer an informed response to this query from FM, because RBI believed that it needed those powers. North Block seems to have ignored the message in Dr Subbarao’s comment. The message was, RBI would be happy if the powers come through legislative amendment. The powers ‘given’ outside the Act provisions could be with stings and can also be taken back in a different situation through the same process(without legislative process). Statutory bodies like RBI should not be at the mercy of officials in ministries for the powers they are expected to exercise. RBI has burnt fingers on issues like pension updation.
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