India soon to have banking point within reach of 5 Kms of every citizen: Jaitley

New Delhi: India will soon have banking point within the reach of 5 kms of every citizen, Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs Arun Jaitley has said.

Speaking at the 100th Foundation Day programme of Union Bank of India, in Mumbai on Sunday, he said, “Perivate banks rely on retail banking to grow but nationalised banks have to focus on industry and infrastructure. Keeping in mind the goal of financial inclusion, the Department of Financial Services will have a banking point within 5 km of every citizen”.

The FM observed that during the period of 2014 – 2018, the population who had access to banking services rose from 58 percent to almost 100 percent. The banking sector has helped weaker sections with low cost insurance.

In order to reduce corruption, it is necessary to reduce interfaces and customers need not have to visit banks for anything. The recent scheme of loan approvals in 59 minutes for MSMEs, launched by PM Modi is a step in that direction, Jaitley added.

Jaitley further said that despite higher oil prices and periodic slowdowns, the Indian Economy has clocked good growth rate. NPAs of banks needs to be curbed as healthy banks are necessary for growth of economy.

The problem of NPAs which arose due to indiscriminate lending was concealed for a long time, but government adopted a multi-pronged approach and government will ensure that dishonest decisions and not erroneous ones are punished, he said.