According to the finance minister, while a lot has been done to ensure greater level playing field between public sector and private sector bankers, the former are constricted by “obsolete laws”. Jaitley was specifically referring to the 1988 Prevention Of Corruption Act that restricts public sector employees, especially bankers, from taking radical and quick decisions. State-owned bankers are usually cautious before taking tough calls to manage bad loans, especially while taking haircuts by selling them to stressed asset managers. Public sector lenders account for a lion’s share of the Rs6.3 trillion toxic loan pile in the Indian banking system. One about the implementation of GST (goods and services tax), which we think we have adequately answered, and the second, (about) the health of the public sector banks,” Jaitley said.

Source: Mint September 27, 2016 19:30 UTC