The Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley, on Saturday said that the Electoral Bonds scheme will be rolled out after discussions with the Reserve Bank of India.
Briefing reporters after his customary post-Budget address to the RBI board, Jaitley said that one of the board members had during the meeting sought the Government’s view on the Budget proposal relating to Electoral Bonds.
Jaitely told reporters that the Government will discuss with RBI to finalise the issues such as the duration of the Electoral Bonds, and the bank branches that will be involved for the scheme.
Jaitley also said that he had briefed the board about the economic situation of the country.
Meanwhile, to a query on when RBI would come up with an accurate figure of the demonetised notes deposited with the banking system, RBI Governor Urjit Patel said that the central bank would do so after arriving at a verified number.
Patel also said that he saw some scope for reduction of lending rate by banks in certain sectors, although he did not name them. Patel highlighted that banks had already lowered the lending rates in the housing sector.
He concurred with the Finance Minister’s view that a disproportionate part of the existing NPAs are basically legacy issues and they pertained to long gestation projects set up before 2011.