New Delhi, December 27, 2019: Financial Accountability Network India condemns RBI’s amendment of Foreign Exchange Management Regulations (FEMA) Act, that requires customers with a Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) account to identify their religion for their ‘Know your Customer’ (KYC) details. The changes, which are in tandem with the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) excludes Muslims and Atheist from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan from buying property in India.
At a time when the banking sector is unable to come out of the crisis that it is already in, this is a well-designed and planned move to further divide the secular country. Moreover, this move also indicates the willingness of RBI to be used as a political tool of the government. Just like demonetization, that is only going to create more confusion and panic among the people. In recent times, the RBI along with the government have involved in successive anti-people policies instead of finding effective solutions for the corporate loot of the banks. From the merger of banks, giving more corporate tax cuts, shifting the loss to the people through bank charges, attempts to bring FRDI Bill, push towards online banking have all only increased the pressure on banks and the people!
These policies have also been in tandem with the government’s push towards privatizing public sector units through disinvestment and systematically weakening the public sector banks. What we need is a resolution of the existing crisis and not one that would create more stress among the people. To include religion in KYC details is an unconstitutional move.
This is the first time that banks are introducing religion as a criterion for any banking activity and must be steadfastly opposed. It is deplorable that RBI is lining with the communal agenda of the government, especially when there is a country-wide protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act! This move is even more dangerous if such a policy is extended to all accounts. With the government not scaling back on its idea to bring in National Register of Citizenship (NRC), such a move from RBI to dove-tail its policy on communal lines is alarming.
Religion cannot be a marker for availing banking services and this amendment should immediately be withdrawn by RBI.
Endorsed by:
Medha Patkar, Narmada Bachao Andolan / National Alliance of People’s Movements
Devidas Tuljapurkar, General Secretary Maharashtra State Bank Employees Federation & Joint Secretary, All India Bank Employees Association
Thomas Franco, former General Secretary, All India Bank Officers Confederation
T R Bhatt, Former Banker and Writer
Gautam Mody, General Secretary, New Trade Union Initiative (NTUI)
Soumya Dutta, MAUSAM
Vimal Bhai, National Alliance of People’s Movements
Shabnam Hashmi, ANHAD
Leo F. Saldanha, Environment Support Group, Bengaluru
Shripad Dharmadhikary, Manthan Adhyayan Kendra, Pune
Dr. Virendra Vidrohi, General Secretary, Indian Social Action Forum (INSAF)
Girija Pathak, National Convener All India People’s Forum (AIPF)
Ashok Choudhary, All India Union of Forest Working People (AIUFWP)
Vijayan M J, General Secretary, Pakistan India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD)
Shreedhar Ramamurthi, Environics Trust, New Delhi
Anil T Varghese, Delhi Forum
Moumita Datta, All India Bank Officers’ Confederation
Dr. Bharat Patel, Machimar Adhikar Sangarsh Samiti, Gujarat
Ram Wangkheirakpam, Indigenous Perspectives, Manipur
Senthil Babu, French Institute, Pondicherry
Arun, The Media Collective, New Delhi
Rajendra Ravi, Institute for Democracy and Sustainability (IDS), New Delhi
Vidya Dinkar, Karavali Karnataka Janabhivridhi Vedike, Mangaluru
Anivar Aravind, Indic Project, Bengaluru
Srikanth, Cashless Consumer
Srujana Merugu, Independent Machine Learning Researcher
Ravindranath, River Basin Friends, Assam
Raj Kumar Sinha, Bargi Bandh Visthapit Avam Prabhavit Sangh, Madhya Pradesh
Vickram Crishna, Independent Researcher
Deben Sharma, Manipur
Sanjeev Kumar Danda, Dalit Adivasi Shakti Adhikar Manch (DASAM), New Delhi
Vineet Tiwari, Joshi-Adhikari Institute of Social Studies, New Delhi
Musthujab, Delhi Solidarity Group
Kailash Nadh, Swanthanthra Malayalam Computing
Centre for Financial Accountability (CFA), New Delhi
Sanat Chakravarti, Journalist, Manipur
Amit Kumar, Student, Faculty of Law, Delhi University
Purnima Gupta, New Delhi
Urvashi Vashist, New Delhi
Nadeem Ansari, New Delhi
Gunjan Jain
Macherla Mohan Rao
Uzra Bilgrami
Vivek, Hyderabad
Karuna Miryam
Jayasree Subramanian
Vishrut Aggarwal, New Delhi
Working Group on International Financial Institutes (WGonIFIs)
Financial Accountability Network India (FAN India)
For more information, please contact:
Priya Dharshini
+919654680488
[email protected]