Balance in inoperative bank-accounts
Huge balance is lying in inoperative accounts in banks with even many account-holders having forgotten about their bank-accounts. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has introduced Know-Your-Customer (KYC) forms which has been made mandatory also for closing such inoperative accounts. Such cumbersome practice not only is causing difficulty to account-holders wishing to close their inoperative accounts, but also creating a big loss of man-hours of bank-employees apart from unnecessary data-entries and record-keeping. Frauds are reported through some bank-employees misappropriating funds in such inoperative accounts where amount is large.
RBI should direct all banks to close all accounts not operated for say last three years, and send the remittance through pay-orders by Speed Post at last known addresses of account-holders at least for accounts having balance of say rupees ten thousand or less. In case of return of Speed-Post envelopes, formalities like of KYC form and succession-certificates etc may be required. For amounts bigger than rupees ten thousand, account-holders should be informed about their existing balance and to approach banks either to make accounts operative or close these in a time-bound period after which all such balances should be transferred to Depositor-Educative-Awareness-Fund (DEAF). With private sector dominating banking sector, public-money lying in inoperative accounts must not be allowed to be retained by banks.
Frequent change of account-numbers by banks should be prevented by making it mandatory for all banks to allot 15-digit account-numbers. Confusing and frequently changing account-numbers result in bouncing of electronic fund-transfers.
Madhu Agrawal
FM should not oblige stakeholders with tax cuts
The government’s estimate of 5 per cent GDP growth seems to be realistic though the stock markets may not like it. Everybody is aware of the challenges surrounding the international environment and most global economies including India are going through a stress. Middle East crisis and crude prices rising can act as speed breaker and business leaders will have to show their acumen to not just cut wasteful costs but optimise production and up the growth rate.
The Union Budget is round the corner and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman should not oblige stakeholders with tax cuts that further puts a burden on the economy. Citizens too should not ask for concessions in an environment that is tough but work harder to contribute to India’s economy the fruits of which would be borne in future years. India as a nation should grow up and people should not waste their energies in protests as well as violence but work in right earnest for the growth of the nation.
S.N. Kabra
Frequent-Flyers-Points should be credited to government accounts
Various airlines-companies give Frequent-Flyers-Points (FFP) to their customers for promoting their sales and clients, which when accumulated provide passengers even free air-travel. There is a large section of people including Parliamentarians, government-employees and others who frequently fly at expense of central and state governments or their undertakings. All airlines-companies should be asked to compulsorily open Frequent-Flyers-Accounts in names of central and all state governments where only FFPs may be credited for air-tickets purchased or reimbursed at public-expenses.
FFPs on air-tickets purchased directly at public-expenses can be credited directly to such opened government-accounts for crediting FFPs. In case of reimbursement later by governments, reimbursement may be allowed only when traveller gives certificate or proof of getting FFPs credited in government-accounts. All travel-expenses at public-expense must be put on websites of respective public-authorities.
Subhash Chandra Agrawal
IRCTC should start Digital Signature Certificate authentication
Digital Signature Certificate (DSC) is issued by competent certifying authority to validate a person’s identity and authenticate the user. DSC is widely used to affix digital signatures to important and sensitive documents and also validates the user’s identity. The Certifying Authority issues three types of DSC namely Class 1,Class 2 and Class 3. Whilst Class 1 is a common authentication tool, Class 2 and Class 3 come with added layer of security and is issued to specific persons like directors, managers etc.
Further IRCTC is suggested to initiate Class 1 Digital Signature Certificate authentication as a mandatory requirement even for single users to book rail tickets on its website/mobile application. It is given to understand that IRCTC has already mandated possession of Class 3 DSC for rail travel agents to book e-tickets. The Class 1 DSC otherwise authenticates a registered user’s complete name and email id, which is a pre-requisite for online rail ticket bookings. Such an enhanced security feature can be enabled by IRCTC to streamline rail ticket bookings, prevent duplicate/dubious registrations and thus ensure a secure and hassle free e-ticket booking facility.
Varun Dambal
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
