The government plans to allow new banks to manage the growing number of accounts under the Jan Dhan scheme.
Financial services secretary Gurdial Singh Sandhu said, "The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will shortly invite fresh applications to grant new licences in three categories – small banks, payments and universal banks – to fulfill the objective of the government of achieving financial inclusion."
The finance ministry is also finalising a Cabinet note for restructuring of its banking and financial sectors. The idea is to broad-base the debt market to enable corporates to access liquidity on long-term basis exceeding 25 years so that the burden of interest rates on them is eased, he said.
The move will come as a huge relief to the infrastructure sector, which needs long-term financing as projects in sectors such as power and highways have a longer gestation period.
As far as new banking licences are concerned, the government will give top priority to the smaller banks as they are the ones which will tap the large unbanked rural and semi-urban population.
"The applications would thereafter be entertained for payments banks and at last the universal banking," said Sandhu.
The implementation of the Jan Dhan scheme is facing certain delays as RuPay debit cards are not being issued at the time of opening the accounts.
As on October 7, about 5.52 crore accounts have been opened and Rs 4,268 crore deposits mobilised under the scheme. A review meeting of the mission directorate of the scheme on October 9 emphasised on the early issue of RuPay Debit Cards, e-KYC based account opening, Aadhaar seeding and also reviewed the progress in survey made in the rural as well as urban areas.
Budget making process starts
The finance ministry has started the budget making process for 2015-16, which will be presented in February 2015. A notification calling the estimates of the expenditure has been issued by the finance ministry to all the government departments.
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