Urjit Patel gets third summons from parliamentary panel

For a rare third time, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Urjit Patel will appear before a parliamentary panel, to face questions on demonetisation and cashless economy.The House panel on finance has called Patel again after the Indian Bank Association claimed that the process to go cashless has slowed down.

Patel, who had been targeted by a section of the Opposition over demonetisation, had earlier appeared before the finance panel and the Public Accounts Committee. “He is likely to appear next week. He will have a lot of questions to answer,” said a member of the panel.

Many opposition leaders have questioned the RBI’s autonomy and wondered if the decision to withdraw the old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes was taken by the central bank.

Patel had earlier said demonetisation, in the long term, would benefit the country.“We will ask Patel if they had accounted for the slump in digital transactions after the cash flow was normalised?” said another member.

 “Our report on demonetisation will not just be on the basis of what the bankers are saying, but after talking to all stakeholders,” said an NDA member, indicating that the panel would talk to more people before arriving at a conclusion. At the last meeting, bankers demanded subsidy from the government to buy more point-of-sale machines and create more ATM kiosks.