Mumbai: Punjab National Bank chairman and managing director KC Chakrabarty was at its witty best at the Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) conference on Monday. He took a dig at almost everyone — from the CII to bankers and from technology companies to economic predictions.

“The downturn has made it difficult for banks — everyone has become an expert and is giving suggestions. Each day there’s a new update on a downturn; even the CII booklet predicts a recession,” he quipped on the CII reportnamed: ‘Managing Recession’: Key Recommendations.’

Urging everyone to be positive he called the downturn a once-in-a-century event which he hoped he won’t see again.

Chakrabarty said FY10 is going to be a cautious year for his bank with credit growth expected to fall to 20%, from 38% in 2008-09. He expects deposits to grow at 18%.

The PNB chief lashed out at people who say that banks are not lending. “You say banks are not lending but you don’t say which banks. You are not saying that these were the same banks that got the best-bank awards year after year.”

“My credit growth is 38% and my lending rate is 100 basis points lower than the largest bank and 300 bps lower than the second-largest bank in the country,” he said.

“I have to give loans at subsidised rates for exporters at 8% home loans at 10% and agriculture loans at 7%. If I don’t give the rest of the loans at PLR, the banking sector will collapse,” he said.

Chakrabarty, who is also the front runner for the deputy governor’s post in the Reserve bank of India, said that unless the US economy improves India can’t expect to do better.”Meanwhile, we have to look internally and create domestic demand.

This is an opportunity for IT companies to create software products for Indian companies and banks. If we can take products to the poor it will be the best stimulus. Economic and monetary stimulus (alone) won’t work,” he said.

PNB is planning to increase its no-frills accounts to 10 crore from 47-48 lakh within five years.

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