Hope
most of you are aware of computation techniques used in today’s employee’s
salary figures in a corporate company. The total salary would be divided into few
categories like basic salary, housing allowances, travel allowances, night
shift allowances etc. All this are done to cheat the employee and the
government to deprive the employee from getting more terminal benefits. Now why
is that I am referring this here? I found a parallel in government practice!!
That too in its human development initiatives!!!
My servant maid has a dream to live in own
house at least in her last few years. She is already 50 and without husband. She
has 2 daughters and one son. Her son and one of her daughter are employed and earn
around Rs 6000. And she belongs to SC community. She asked help from my dad and
he did what he can. Seeing her sufferings i told her about government
regulations on PRIORITY SECTOR and its mandate to banks to lend money to people
of this category on a priority!
Before
narrating rest of the story i like the readers to read the RBI released
document on priority sector lending and understand what it is and why it is
instituted.
Now
hope all would have understood why priority sector concept is introduced in India.
It implies two things. 1. Economic development is possible only if certain priority
sectors are funded effectively. 2. Economic development will transform into a
true human development only if certain sectors of people are taken care of.
Now
let’s come back to the story. One day i took her to my bank (IOB, Vyasarpadi)
and enquired for a loan. We showed them her son and daughter’s salary slips and
requested for a loan. They rejected the request saying low repaying capability.
I told them that she belongs to SC community as well and demanded a loan on
priority sector category. Astonishingly no one in the bank knows anything of such
a mandate. They were equally puzzled! I walked out disgustedly. The curious George
in me woke up. I wanted to know “Which bank in my area knows such a policy?” I
immediately dropped her back home and started my trip to all public sector
banks in my area. SBI, Repco, Indian Bank (two Branches) and met managers in
all these banks. Believe me ..... none of them knew what it is?
Amazing! Isn't it! Every year Economic survey notifies that all such targets are achieved
in stipulated time period; But the managers who actually lend the loans doesn't know anything about such a scheme. How on earth it is possible? Either
Government should be lying or the bank managers should be joking!
Actually
neither was the case! One of my friends in a bank explained me that. The
computation happens in regional offices and zonal offices. After calculating
all the loans that are dispatched in the target period they see whether the
target is achieved automatically by just a computation. In most cases, it will
be served automatically. If it is not the case, bank takes special measures
through rural branches or donates to RIDF, Rural infrastructure development
fund as per government policy! Actually RBI regulation clearly states that bank
must facilitate loans under certain schemes like SGSY etc and it should take
responsibility in coordinating with authorities like DRDAs etc to help the
people. But in practice none of the managers know such schemes.
How
the real people in need would be served by just computing in central offices? RBI
says weaker sections should be lent money to repay their balances with
unauthorised money lenders. But where is the system in place to do that. None of
the officials tend to know about this scheme. Then how the bank can help such
people? How real economically backward SC and ST people would be benefited if
you centrally compute. Hope people understand my point here. A doctor who
belongs to SC community gets a loan from a bank and when you centrally compute
it you can easily compute this loan under priority sector category, but
actually he is not the needy to whom the scheme is originally designed!
The
truth is that, the government, RBI and every other person involved here knows it
is done only on paper and they don’t have the will to interrupt this because if
they strictly enforce these schemes, there is a fear of many foreign banks exiting
from Indian market fearing of losses. Hence everyone concerned are ready to
compute as corporates do in employee’s salary and create a corporate governance
in India.
