In the wake of RBI’s decision to transfer Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the government as per the recommendations of the Bimal Jalan-led committee; and Modi Government’s the decision to merge 10 Public Sector Banks to carve out for large banks, a public debate titled ‘RBI’s Reserve Fund Transfer & Banks Mergers: A Loot or Boost?’ was organised by Financial Accountability Network India, a collective of civil society organisations, unions, people’s movements, students, teachers and concerned citizens to highlight the issues of accountability and transparency of the national financial institutions.
The meeting was addressed by Sitaram Yechury, General Secretary, CPI(M); Prof Jayati Ghosh, Centre For Economic Studies and Planning, JNU; Prof C P Chandrasekhar, Centre For Economic Studies and Planning, JNU; Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Senior Journalist and author; Dr Thomas Franco, Former General Secretary, All India Bank Officers’ Confederation; VK Tomar, Secretary-General, National Confederation of Officers’ Associations of Central PSUs; and Purushottam Sharma, CPI (ML).
Senior journalist and author Paranjoy Guha-Thakurta argued that RBI must have a healthy reserve to prevent the depreciation of the Rupee. In his presentation, the veteran journalist pointed towards the fudging of the key data. “The current economic situation is so bad that despite the government’s best efforts to distract people with article 370, Balakot and Ram Mandir, certain economic downfalls are becoming too difficult to hide under any smokescreen, the most important being the automobile industry with multiple companies shutting down their production units for a definite time periods. The state is still in denial about the implications of demonetisation,” he added.