Law to raise insurance on bank deposits, regulate coop banks

Tribune News Service & PTI
New Delhi, November 15 

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today said the government will bring legislations on raising insurance cover on bank deposits from the current Rs 1 lakh and regulating multi-state cooperative banks. These legislations will be brought during the winter session of Parliament starting Monday, the minister said.

These legislations assume significance in the wake of scam in PMC Bank affecting lakhs of customers who are facing difficulties in withdrawing their entire money due to restrictions imposed by the RBI.

At present, bank depositors get an insurance cover of Rs 1 lakh on their amount by the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation. She said the government was also looking at possibility whether houses attached by enforcement agencies for loans against PMC Bank could be liquidated and the proceeds be used to pay the depositors.

About the stress in the telecom sector, she said, “We want no company to shut their operations. We want everyone to flourish.” Vodafone-Idea and Airtel have posted a combined quarterly loss of about Rs 74,000 crore as they were hit by statutory dues after a recent Supreme Court ruling.

The minister further said the Committee of Secretaries, appointed to deal with financial problems being faced by telecos, “has not taken final decision yet”.

Economy just fine, claims minister 

Union Minister Suresh Angadi on Friday dismissed Opposition’s criticism over the state of economy, asserting that “airports and trains are full and people are getting married” and this indicated that the country’s economy was “doing fine”. Noting that the economy slowed down every three years, the Minister of State for Railways said “some people” are trying to malign the image of PM Narendra Modi. “Airports are full, trains are full, people are getting married,” he said. back page 

Insolvency rules for  finance cos notified

The government on Friday notified rules under the insolvency law to deal with resolution of systemically important financial service providers, excluding banks. It will provide a generic framework for insolvency and liquidation proceedings of systemically important Financial Service Providers other than banks, a statement said. The move comes amid instances of financial stress faced by certain entities that are into financial services. PTI