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FDI in banks may be hiked to 74%
 
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January 15, 2005 15:37 IST
The Finance Minister P Chidambaram said on Saturday that banking reform roadmap allowing foreign banks to pick up to 74 per cent equity in Indian private banks was being "fine tuned" and would be announced early next week.

"RBI Governor Y.V. Reddy has come for this purpose. It is being fine tuned. We are dotting the i's and crossing the t's," he said after a two-hour long meeting with Reddy in New Delhi.

Reddy later had a meeting with economic affairs secretary Rakesh Mohan to go into the fine prints of the roadmap.

The roadmap would be unveiled on Monday or Tuesday after approval from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Chidambaram said.

Presently foreign banks are allowed to pick up equity in Indian private banks up to 49 per cent. Though the government had announced in May last that the FDI cap would be raised to 74 per cent, the guidelines had not been worked out as yet.

The roadmap will affect far-reaching reforms in the banking sector as many of the private banks are tottering. The RBI had circulated draft guidelines for this purpose in July last.

The roadmap is likely to include guidelines for consolidation of public sector banks; a few of them have already indicated their plans for mergers in the next few months.

The banking sector is crowded with nearly 100 state, private and foreign banks, besides over 200 regional rural banks.

The UPA government is committed to creating a financial sector which could foster eight per cent GDP growth and the roadmap is one for the steps towards that.

The Finance Minister had promised to announce the roadmap before December end but it got delayed slightly because of Tsunami.


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