Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said that liquidity was not a problem, minutes after she concluded her meeting with private sector banks and financial institutions.
"I have not heard liquidity as a problem from anybody here today," she, accompanied by finance secretary Rajeev Kumar, told media. "If there was a problem of liquidity, it was in the wholesale financing, and not in the retail."
Kumar announced the private sector banks will take part in an outreach programme through which they will visit at least 400 districts and convey that banks have sufficient liquidity.
Referring to the word of micro-finance institutions at the meeting, Sitharaman said: "Many of the MFIs and micro-finance units, which have come here are in deep country, and they said that in those areas there is still demand and they are extending loans."
"All of them clearly voiced a positive growth which is an encouraging story."
Speaking of the service sector, Sitharaman said it was showing a very high appetite for credit. "There is an immense possibility to reach out to them provided, of course, there are some simpler tweaking that we can do using their salaries and cash they earn also as a part can be used for their credit assessment," she said.
Quoting private bankers, Sitharaman said the slump in the commercial vehicle sales was "cyclical", adding "sentiments" were leading to lower passenger vehicle sales.
"Loans for affordable housing scheme taken off well; demand from bankers to raise the limit to Rs 50 lakh from current Rs 45 lakh," she said.
(With inputs from PTI, ANI)
