Finance Minister P Chidambaram will meet heads of public sector banks on July 3 to review financial performance of lenders and discuss ways to step up lending activity to boost sagging growth.
The rescheduled meeting will take place on July 3 and the broad agenda of the meeting include direct benefit transfer, deteriorating asset quality and credit growth, official sources said.
Earlier, the banks chiefs meet scheduled for today was postponed due to AGMs of some banks on the same day.
The Finance Minister is expected to review steps being taken by banks to push stalled infrastructure projects, asset quality and credit inflow to productive sectors.
He is likely to ask banks to increase lending to productive sectors to prop up growth, sources said. Economic growth hit a decade low of 5 per cent in 2012-13.
Bankers said the Finance Minister may also ask banks to reduce their lending rates for pushing up loan growth and economic activity.
Earlier this month Chidambaram had said that although RBI has reduced the policy rates by 1.25 per cent since January 2012, banks have lowered the lending rates by only 0.3 per cent.
"As CPI inflation and deposit rates fall, I would urge commercial banks to translate monetary policy to retail borrowers and firms through lower lending rates," he had said.