Government seems determined to enforce five days week for banking industry: PD Sharma

Ludhiana, April 21, 2014: Apex Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Punjab) PD Sharma has said that the incumbent government is taking such vital decision impugning on economy when new government will come in office soon. Government seems determined to enforce five days week for the banking industry.
Sharma said he has written a letter to Finance Minister & Prime Minister not to implement this decision as it will have very adverse effect on business community. Apparently it seems that the decision may be influenced for political gain as the election is underway. This demand arose many times in the past but was rejected. So political expediency seems to be sole reasons.
He added the manufacturing sector of the country in particular will be harmed with this decision. Already some government policies have taken a high toll of manufacturing. This translates into huge job loss and decline in the export. As a result current account deficit & fiscal deficit have been hurt badly leading to inflation and other macro-economic parameters.
He said Banks are basing their demand for five days week by projecting cost benefit analysis. In this context it is worth mentioning that banks have resorted to charge every bit of service done by them. So apart from high interest rate processing charges by banks are mounting. Even if banks work four days a week they will make the loss by burdening the borrowers.
Adding, Sharma said in this highly competitive business environ bank transactions have to be very efficient and swift. Even one day’s delay results into heavy financial loss to the business community in particular. It is common knowledge that our cheque clearance process is very lethargic to the dismay of business borrowers.
Sharma said Banks are giving the plea that this decision will not hurt the borrowers or the customers of the banks due to modern technology such as ATM’s. Unfortunately they don’t tell the effects on the business borrowers.
“In the banking sector there were 11, 75,149 employees working in the 169 schedule commercial banks on March 2012”, he said.
He added the five days week decision will hurt very adversely the working of business. The country’s economy will further weaken leading to more loss of jobs & resulting in high inflation etc.
Apart from these harmful facts it is morally incorrect for the incumbent government to resort to such decision for their very narrow political benefits at the cost of the country’s economy. The decision should not be implemented. Unfortunately no opposition party can afford to oppose this decision publically in view of the ongoing election.