Hyderabad, July 20: The Union finance minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, on Tuesday announced that the government had no intention to meddle with the working of various regulatory bodies that were given autonomy by Parliament.
Without mentioning the dispute between Sebi and IRDA, the minister said that a recent ordinance by the government would find an answer to such rows.
However, he pointed out that in the event of a conflict between two or more regulatory institutions the government would opt for a joint mechanism to resolve the impasse. But there would not be any other interference except in the small area of conflict, he added. “Let me tell you unambiguously, various regulators enjoy autonomy as per the Act passed by Parliament,” said Mr Mukherjee, while speaking to mediapersons on the sidelines of a high-level meeting with Chief Ministers of South Zone and CEOs of public sector banks and financial institutions, “If a conflict arises in an area of hybrid products, a joint mechanism would try to resolve that.”
Mr Mukherjee said that the government would soon come out with a legislation to control the interest rates to be charged by the micro finance institutions.
The finance ministry has directed the banks to ensure 50 per cent of loans to MSMEs this financial year. “They have to increase it to 55 per cent the next year and 60 per cent in 2012-13,” he said.
He said the discussions with lenders and other stak-eholders was a practice that he followed when he was finance minister in from 1982 to 1984. “That was discontinued after I moved out of finance and now I have resumed that practice once again,” he said.