Go back to the pre-deregulation days
Go back to pre-deregulation days?*
This refers to “Are Bank Charges Going Haywire? Has the
Regulator Abdicated Its Role?”(www.moneylife.in,
March 10, 2017) by Sucheta Dalal. In the long run portability of accounts among
the same or similar types of banks may be of some advantage to customers.
Banks, especially the big ones, in the public and private sectors, have
different approaches to the government and big account holders: a ‘yours
obediently’ and ‘May I help you’ approach. But when it comes to small accounts
(including Jan Dhan, Pension or several accounts opened for crediting ‘benefits’),
the attitude is one of ‘take it, or leave it…come when we are free…We’re doing
a favour to you, because Government wants us to do…’
If a cost-benefit analysis is the guiding factor, the
government should compensate banks for losses and tax banks’ income income in
other areas to fund the outgo. If regulating interests and service charges is
the only language the banks understand, RBI should not hesitate to go back to
the pre-deregulation days.
M G Warrier, online comment
* Moneylife, 31 March-13 April 2017
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