ASSOCHAM wants Banks to be available during year end
ASSOCHAM Secretary General says,
March 28 is holiday on account of Ram Nawami followed by Sunday. Then the banks open on March 30 for a day for public and would be out of reach for the general public on March 31 and April 1 due to annual closing. On April 2, the banks along with government offices remain shut because of Mahavir Jayanti to be followed by Good Friday on April 3. On the following day, banks work for a couple of hours on Saturday to be followed by Sunday on April 6. So, virtually from March 28 till April 6, the banking transactions are going to be affected.
He wants the RBI to step in and advise the banks to make some arrangements.
He adds:
On the one hand, the government wants the economy to be captured in a formal financial architecture, on the other ''this financial architecture is used to long holidays. Now this is not the vibrant business and economic environment which can make India a financial hub.
While the ATMs would remain operational, there is a different kind of problems. A large number of ATMs do not work properly. Besides, they are not even well spread. There would be a cluster of ATMs and then you may not find them for kilometers at a stretch even in big cities.
Besides, there is a limit of cash withdrawals. For all practical purposes,the ATMs at best are doing only the cash vending jobs. What about rest of the banking transactions like cheque clearances, letters of credit for the exporters/importers, salary disbursals? The week of holidays from March 28 is going to be a difficult for businesses.
Apart from banks, a string of holidays would also affect operations at the cargo stations of the airlines, customs at the port. As it is, our exports are in a state of disarray with 15 percent de-growth in February. These holidays would certainly tell upon the export figures for March and April.
We need to somehow get out of this long stretches of holidays, which though may be good for holiday sellers and tour operators. But that is only a limited positive against a big balance tilted in favour of negatives.