A fortnight before the deadline set by the Reserve Bank governor Raghuram Rajan for the issuance of banking licences expires, financial services secretary Rajiv Takru told CNBC-TV18 that the licenses would be granted only by March 31.
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In conversation with Aakansha Sethi, he also said that any probe against an applicant would not bar them from getting a licence - this when applicants such as Kumar Mangalam Birla are being investigated by the CBI in the coal scam. “What is important is that these applicants must satisfy the criteria which have been laid down and if they do I see no reason why they should not be given a chance to operate a bank,” Takru added.
Below is the verbatim transcript of Rajiv Takru's interview on CNBC-TV18
Q: Are you still sticking with March 31 deadline?
A: I had mentioned a few months ago that in my view realistic deadline would be March 31. It is good RBI went about this job rather enthusiastically and in all fairness they have managed to do a pretty fast job.
We are also chasing clearances from other agencies. I would expect that March 31 deadline is a very safe one and probably they will finish it much before that.
Q: Now that some of the work has been done on the internal and external agencies have been working, is there a better sense of how many licences can be given?
A: I must say that we never had any preconceived notions and we still don’t have them. We are a vastly under banked country and there is plenty of scope out there for anybody who wants to provide service. I don’t think that is an issue at all. What is important is that these applicants must satisfy the criterias which have been laid down and if they do I see no reason why they should not be given a chance to operate a bank.
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