Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said in Parliament that permission to new private banks for conducting government-related business will be given under the Reserve bank of India (RBI) guidelines.

During the question hour, Sitharaman said the government has now "only indicated" the RBI to allow other private banks to perform government-related business to ensure there is a level playing field. “Now, following the existing norms based on which several banks have been given permission to do the business. So, those rules as per the RBI guidelines be applied on newer banks and new private banks which approach the RBI,” she said.

The RBI, being a regulator, has established norms and those norms will be applicable to the new banks, she added. The minister was responding to a query about whether the government will adopt any criteria to permit new banks for taking up government-related business.

Replying to another query by Shiv Sena leader Anil Desai that if public sector banks will weaken by allowing private banks to conduct government-related business, Sitharaman said some private banks and all public sector banks are doing this.

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