The PMC Bank Account Holders Forum has written a letter to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Governor Shaktikanta Das, last week raising the issues of delay in effecting the DICGC claims of PMC Bank stakeholders by Unity SFB.
The forum states that “Despite the Central Government and RBI effectuating the PMC Bank- Unity SFB Amalgamation scheme on 25.01.2022 totally favoring the Unity SFB and without considering any objections or suggestions raised by the innocent stakeholders of PMC Bank against the draft Amalgamation scheme in December 2021. The PMC Bank victims’ voice and plight have been continuously muffled by the authorities and genuine demands also have been disregarded by the authorities”.
The letter signed by Dipika Sahani, Coordinator, Account holders forum further reads, ” Though the Amalgamation scheme is completely tilted in favor of the Unity SFB, the Unity SFB has not even been able to effectuate the KYC process for all customers due to technical issues at their end, neither have they been able to issue a statement of accounts to the PMC depositors nor have they been able to assist the 37% senior and super senior depositors to bridge the digital process outlined for KYC despite the lapse of 66 days”.
“The delay in carrying out a simple KYC process compels us to conclude that the Unity SFB is tricking us into one more fraud as there was no need to compel innocent depositors to once again undergo the KYC process as the PMC Bank had already verified KYC recently in 2022 only”, it reads.
According to the letter, “Secondly, the lackadaisical attitude is also visible in the total disregard of the Unity SFB management in the opening of new accounts for depositors who did not hold a Savings account with PMC Bank earlier as well as the issuance of checkbooks to all depositors for withdrawal of the DICGC claims by depositors as this whole process should have been undertaken by the Unity SFB in the preceding 66 days which they wasted in playing football by claiming that they would release the amounts as soon as DICGC releases the amounts to them and now have been acclaiming publicly that they have settled Depositor’s claims.”
The fact also remains that the Administrator of the PMC Bank had already worked out a list of Depositors’ claims to be raised with DICGC in 2021 itself well before the Scheme was affected but the Unity SFB is still unprepared to release the amounts promptly to all Depositors.
The end result of this delay would result in the amount of Rs. 37, 91, 56, 33,3 67.64 p ( Rupees Three Thousand, Seven Hundred, Ninety-two Crores only) being used by the Unity SFB for days or months to earn a considerable amount as interest despite DICGC making the payment on 31.03.2022.
Both these developments and denouements compel us to fear for the future consequences that the innocent PMC Bank stakeholders would have to face at the hands of the incompetent, untrustworthy management of the Unity SFB (Centrum- Bharat Pe Joint venture) as their initial footsteps are unstable.
“We earnestly request you once again to facilitate a mechanism to ensure that the new entity the Unity SFB releases the claims of 100% Depositors forthwith within the upcoming week itself, ” it concludes.