Jaitley pushes infrastructure financing at bankers Gyan Sangam

Banks have a major role to play in the financing of infrastructure and they would have to take some bold decisions, finance minister Arun Jaitley said today, adding that growth in power and other infrastructure sectors needs to be revived.

Financing infrastructure may involve some risk, he said, adding that the government was ready to protect commercial decisions so as to avoid the delay in good decisions.

At the same time, Jaitley stated that both the prime minister and he would like to be acquainted about the challenges faced by the PSBs - as to how to get out of the stress created by NPAs and how credit growth can pick up. Government is willing to reconsider the rules, he told bankers at the Gyan Sangam in Pune.

''Government is open to bold decisions for professionalisation of the management and autonomy in decision making, rewarding merit, and relooking at the recruitment process at the top management level of PSBs,'' he said.

In order to improve the economic situation, Jaitley said the government has taken a number of "bold steps" on pushing the goods and services tax and amendment to the Land Acquisition Act with a view to reviving infrastructure growth.

In addition, he said, steps have been taken to increase FDI and domestic investment to give big push to the manufacturing sector.

Referring to the Prime Minister's Jan Dhan Yojna (PMJDY), he said most of the inactive accounts will become operational with the introduction of Direct Benefit Transfer. "These account holders will become symbol of the identity of the cashless system."

Till date, over 100 million bank accounts have been opened under the scheme, one month ahead of the deadline.