Friday, March 24 2006 15:36 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bangalore: A day after meeting bankers on the issue of shortage of liquidity, Finance Minister P Chidambaram today (Mar 24, 2006) said availability of lendable money is not a cause of concern. "Liquidity is not a concern. But liquidity has to be maintained so that interest rates remain attractive to investors", he responded to a question by reporters question on the sidelines of a function here.

When asked if he would suggest a cash reserve cut for the Reserve Bank, Chidambaram said, "What RBI will do, RBI will do. I can't decide what RBI will do."

Chidambaram also dismissed a journalist's question which was based on the assumption that call money rates had increased up to eight to nine per cent.

"You are wrong. Call money rates have not gone up to eight to nine per cent," he said.

The minister said, "I don't know. May be it's your idea," said when asked if service taxes are likely to go up by one per cent every year until it reaches 15 per cent.

Chidambaram had yesterday said in Delhi that a sub-committee of five members of Indian Banks Association has been formed and it would meet RBI Governor Y V Reddy next week to tackle the shortage of money availability in the system.