State Bank of India Leads The Way With Rate Cuts, Congress, Trinamool Not Impressed

New Delhi: A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed to banks to make loans easily available to "the poor, lower middle class and the middle class," three public sector banks lowered their lending rates.

First off the block was the State Bank of India, which reduced 0.9 per cent in their lending rates. Soon, Punjab National Bank and the Union Bank of India followed.

The Finance Ministry tweeted the achievements of the banking sector with regard to the Prime Minister's Jan Dhan scheme that seeks to provide financial inclusion.Finance Minister Arun Jaitley claimed the note ban was a success and the results were showing now. He said demonetisation had increased the "lending capacity of the banks and naturally the cost of capital will come down".

But the Opposition is far from impressed as the government is yet to share with the people how much of the banned 500 and 1000 rupee notes have been deposited.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee tweeted asking the Prime Minister to give out the details of "black money uncovered from demonetisation."The Congress said the Prime Minister should apologise as the move resulted only in pain for ordinary citizens and most of the black money stored in cash are now part of the system.

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"The data is not being given as all the black money in cash is now in banks. Either in benami accounts or some other method," said senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan.

Demanding an apology, Mr Chavan said, "The 50 days of so called Suddhi Yagna is now nothing short of uncontrolled forest fire which has taken a toll over 118 lives across the country and crippled 40 per cent of the informal economy".

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