(LiveMint)
Finance minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday vowed to quickly put on track the banking sector, which has been marred by scandals and bad debts that threaten to have repercussions for the broader economy. Goyal, who was earlier this week given temporary charge of the finance ministry until Arun Jaitley recovers after undergoing a kidney transplant, met heads of public sector banks in New Delhi on Thursday. “We will ensure very orderly growth of the industry and highest levels of probity and accountability that is expected of public sector banks,” he said after the meeting.
Goyal, considered a close associate of Jaitley, has not made a big show of getting additional charge of the finance ministry and largely operates from Rail Bhawan. Jaitley, he said, was “recovering very well”. “Yesterday I had an occasion to talk to him and take his guidance. He has given me some issues (which) I am following,” he said. Goyal, who is the minister for railways and coal, said the priority is “to ensure that we can quickly get entire banking system on its feet and shed the legacy that was inherited by this government in 2014.”
“With the intelligent efforts of all my colleague bankers, lakhs of employees of public sector banks and all the stakeholders of banking system working and under the guidance of the RBI, we will ensure very orderly growth of the industry and highest levels of probity and accountability that is expected of public sector banks,” Goyal said.
