New Delhi : Striking a note different from that of his peers, industry leader Rahul Bajaj said any decision on rate cuts should be left to RBI Chief Raghuram Rajan and he knows the issue “better than the government”.
Stating that Rajan wanted to control inflation which hurt the poor most, the outspoken industrialist also lashed out at the banks for not passing on the entire benefit of RBI’s previous rate cuts to the customers. “The best person in India today to decide (on rate cuts) is the present Governor of RBI… He knows better than the government, he wants to control inflation,” Bajaj Auto Chairman said while speaking at the Economist India Summit here. Supporting Rajan’s focus on containing price rise, Bajaj said if inflation is high, the “poor will suffer the most (and) the fixed income earners will suffer the most”.
He hit out at banks for not passing the entire benefits to consumers of the three rate cuts totalling 75 basis points that RBI has effected since January. “How much has the banks passed on the customers? Why haven’t they passed it on?” he asked.
Bajaj also criticised the Modi government saying it was sending conflicting signals on reforms and asked BJP to extend its hand of friendship to Congress to end the deadlock in Parliament.
He also described the ‘tension’ between the government and the Opposition as worse than that during the Emergency and said BJP should walk “more than halfway” and Congress must accept the friendship to avoid losing even those votes it got the last time.