The Department of Posts will move a Cabinet note in order
to apply for a banking license by the stipulated deadline of July 1, a senior
official has said, even as a top Finance Ministry went public with doubts over
the efficacy of the post office being converted into a bank.
"We are moving a cabinet note now and after that we
will be applying for the licence. After the cabinet note, we will go ahead with
setting up the bank," Postal Services Board's member, planning, Suneeta
Trivedi, told PTI here.
Trivedi asserted that the Department will be making the
application by July 1, which is the last date set by the Reserve Bank for
receiving applications.
The department of Posts has engaged consultancy firm
Ernst & Young for helping it at the application stage by creating the
"whole concept" of the bank and has already gathered all the know-how
to enter the fray.
However, Department of Financial Services Secretary Rajiv
Takru seemed to be not so much interested at the prospect of India Posts
entering the banking fray.
There is a lot more to banking than merely having the
reach and opening savings accounts, he told reporters, adding that it also
involves very complex things at the back end and seemed to suggest that a
Japan-like case, where the postal department has a bank, may not work in the
country.
When asked about the same, Trivdei said, "We have
worked out all on the know how, about everything. There is nothing like
that" and added that there is no rethink on the part of the Postal
department.
Sector watchers suggest that if financial inclusion is
the ultimate aim in granting new licences in this round, the entry of the
department will be highly beneficial to the agenda being pursued by the Reserve
Bank and the Government.
Source:-The Economic Times
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