TIA Correspondent
KOLKATA: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has assured Muslims that their demand for Islamic banking would be addressed soon. Interacting with a delegation of Indian Centre for Islamic Finance (ICIF) headed by H Abdur Raqeeb here, Mukhrjee said that he would soon ask his secretary to discuss with RBI and other concerned bodies to arrive at a decision on the issue.
The delegation meet Finance Minister at his residence on December, 4 and urged him to expedite the process of introducing interest-free banking for the marginalised and the minorities.
The delegation urged the finance minister to begin with a Pilot Project with a Public, Private and Foreign bank operating in India to open ‘INTEREST – FREE ISLAMIC BANKING WINDOW’ (within the existing Indian banking Regulations) in city like Mumbai for one year. “Based on this experiment, Government of India and RBI can decide for further course of action” said the delegation in memorandum to the minister. It said that a document has already been submitted by ICIF to RBI on 26th August 2010in this regard.
It said that a SUKUK (Islamic Bonds) – both Sovereign and Corporate – was also emerging as an alternative for Mega investments in infrastructure development in the world today. ‘Why not India also opts for this’? memorandum asked.
It asked to prevail upon RBI to look into the Malaysian model of Islamic banking as suggested by Prime Minsiter during his recent visit to Malaysia.
The delegation stressed that like other in UK and Singapore, Finance Ministry and RBI could undertake a concerted and coordinated effort with experts of RBI, the financial services Industry and Islamic financial experts to accommodate interest free Islamic Banking and provide a level playing field along with the conventional banking at the earliest.
