Chidambaram welcomes RBI measures but says EMI deferment ambiguous, half-hearted

New Delhi, Mar 27: Congress leader P Chidambaram on Friday welcomed the RBI decision to cut repo rate and its other measures to infuse more liquidity into the system. He, however, said RBI's direction on deferment of EMI payments is ambiguous and half-hearted.

"The demand is that all EMI due dates must be automatically deferred. "I had suggested that all due dates falling before 30 June may be deferred to 30 June. Borrowers have been made dependent on the bank concerned and will be disappointed," the former finance minister said.

Repo rate is the rate at which the central bank lends money to commercial banks in the event of any shortfall of funds. It is used by monetary authorities to control inflation. Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill said the government's economic package announced on Thursday was inadequate and sought more steps to address the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

"Government COVID2019 Economic Package is case of 'Oonth Ke Muu Me Jeera-Too Less for the Ones Who Need More' as USD 22.5 billion not enough for 135 crore population (Singapore 58Lac-Grant USD 33billion) "44 Crore plus informal labour force left out. Extend EMI Moratorium to farmers," he said.

Shergill said he welcomed the move by RBI to announce EMI moratorium but following needs to be done and clarified. "Extend moratorium to farm loans. Clarify whether moratorium extends to student/education loans. Clarify whether definition of 'borrowers' include individual loan borrowers as well," Shergill said.