FM lists operational hurdles of PSUs

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that public sector units face a lot of restrictions as compared with their private sector peers.

“Normally it is said that state institutions find it very difficult to compete with private institutions and the reason is that state institutions normally have a more bureaucratic manner of decision- making,” Jaitley said.

Public sector companies cannot go and recruit from university campuses like private institutions. They ought to have a particular mechanism which follows the tests laid down by various judicial pronouncements. Erroneous decisions of state sector bankers can have penal consequences. Private sector institutions can operate free from those fears. Besides, state-owned institutions have a more defensive style of functioning, Jaitley added.

Lauding the adoption of technology by consumers when it comes to banking, Jaitley said a lot of things which used to be done by consumers will become history soon.

“Technology is very good, it is also going to change the habit of a large number of our consumers and users. Billions of people who bank will no longer have to rely on the passbook where brick and mortar branches will gradually become redundant when cheques would become outdated institutions. And that’s always going to be now the changing face of business, trade, commerce and finance as far as the world is concerned,” Jaitley said.

Arun jaitley: With these kind of initiatives, cash transactions will become increasingly lesser. It is not only going to make accounting much more easier, but also probably going to bring in a lot more money within the official net.