Remove withdrawal limit on PMC customers: Congress

New Delhi: Claiming that the recent actions of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in the Punjab & Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank case was a systemic failure rather than an individual bank’s default, the Congress party on Friday said that the withdrawal limit of Rs 10,000 on customers must be removed immediately and an FIR must be registered against the bank directors.

The party also attacked the Modi government on the rising prices of onions.

“This action has placed scores of depositors in the lurch and their hard-earned money is now under threat. Moreover, the swift manner in which the RBI decided to restrict withdr-awals initially to Rs 1,000 per depositor over a pe-riod of six months and then increasing the same to Rs 10,000 seems to suggest that RBI is clueless as to what the real issue is,” Congress spokesperson Prof Gourav Vallabh told the media.

He questioned whether this was a case of a complete systemic failure and was this only restricted to the co-operative banking system or entire financial service industry. “Can RBI emphatically state that this crisis is not going to affect the entire financial system?”

He said that the withdrawal limit must be removed and in special and emergency cases, the bank must allow customers to withdraw their money held in deposits.

Mr Vallabh also asked that housing societies be allowed to use their funds parked in the PMC Bank and said that FIRs must be registered against bank directors before they leave for safe foreign locations so that accountability is fixed.

The Congress spokesperson also that the wholesale price of onions is only Rs 31.48 per kg, according to data from the National Horticulture Board, while it is being sold for more that Rs 70 per kg in many cities. “This reflects that neither the common man has benefited nor the farmer,” he said.

Only the middleman is earning high margins. We demand that government should ensure that this margin booking by traders should be stopped,” he said.