Patel gets call from House panel to depose on note ban
The parliamentary standing committee on finance on Thursday decided to call Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) governor Urjit Patel to depose on demonetisation at its next meeting on May 25, apart from discussing the level of corporate governance observed by India Inc.
Sources told Hindustan Times the decision to summon Patel once again comes after the insistence of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who had come to the rescue of Patel in the last meeting in January.
When Patel was confronted with tough questions from parliamentarians about the exact amount of demonetised currencies deposited during the 50-day window and the time by when normalcy would return to the banking system, Singh had intervened, saying that the governor’s institution should be respected. The former PM said that Patel didn’t have to answer all the questions.
Singh is one of the members of the panel, headed by Congress leader Veerappa Moily.
The lawmakers’ panel, which was so far quizzing policymakers on demonetisation, also decided to debate digital transaction that is being promoted by the Narendra Modi government to push a cash-dependent country to a “less-cash” economy.
“We have clubbed the agendas of demonetisation and digitisation. We have already asked finance ministry officials and RBI governor twice. So, we decided to take up the issue with corporate governance and CSR today,” Moily said.
At the last meeting on January in January, Patel failed to provide any figure on how many of the banned notes had returned to the system and also did not provide clarity on when the cash situation would become normal. On Thursday, the House panel questioned industry chambers on how companies are using the Corporate social responsibility funds.
Many parliamentarians such as BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, said sources, pointed out that India Inc was largely restricting their CSR spending in a few areas such as Mumbai, and not doing enough for backward regions such as Jharkhand.
They questioned the lack of transparency in the functioning of CSR trusts. The panel also sought details of the independent directors and whether they were any way serving the interests of the promoters instead of the investors.