Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman met customers of Punjab & Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank here on Thursday and heard their woes
New Delhi: After meeting victims of PMC Bank scam, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman assured action and stated that she was not in a position to commit on timeline. While addressing a press brief, she said that it is the RBI that regulates cooperative banks, not the government.
Sitharaman told reporters, "Finance ministry may have nothing to do with it (PMC bank matter) directly because RBI is the regulator. But from my side, I've asked the secretaries of my ministry to work with rural development ministry and urban development ministry to study in detail as to what is happening."
The RBI had restricted the activities of the PMC Bank for six months and asked it not to grant or renew any loans and advances, make any investment or incur any liability, including borrowing of funds and acceptance of fresh deposits in last month.
On October 3, RBI enhanced the withdrawal limit for the depositors of Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank Ltd to Rs 25,000. Earlier, RBI had permitted depositors to withdraw up to Rs 10,000 of the total balance in their accounts. Before that the RBI had capped withdrawal limit at Rs 1,000 but later on increased it to Rs 10,000 per account.
Depositors of PMC Bank also protested outside Mumbai's Killa court on Wednesday (October 9), demanding stringent action against the culprits, as police custody of three accused in Rs 4,355 crore scam at the bank was extended till October 14.
PMC Bank is a multi-state scheduled urban cooperative bank with operations in Goa, Gujarat, Maharashtra, New Delhi, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh.
With ANI inputs
Read Exclusive COVID-19 Coronavirus News updates, at MyNation.