Parliament committee may postpone calling RBI governor Urjit Patel

New Delhi: A parliamentary committee may postpone calling RBI governor Urjit Patel on the issue of demonetisation, as BJP members expressed their unavailability this month.

Patel is scheduled to appear before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance on June 8 for a second briefing on demonetisation.

"BJP members including Ajay Sancheti, Nishikant Dubey and Shivkumar Udasi expressed their unavailability in June. Dubey said he is ill and will be out of the country for treatment," a source said adding Patel may be called in July.

Patel had also sought exemption from the panel expressing his inability to appear on May 25, as he was busy drafting the monetary policy.

The panel had already questioned Patel on January 18 on the move to ban notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denominations.

Patel is appearing before the panel after former prime minister Manmohan Singh prevailed upon the BJP MPs on the panel who were opposed to summoning the RBI Governor again.

During the meeting, the members from opposition parties also raised the issue of slump in GDP growth to 6.1 per cent and blamed demonetisation for it.

Opposition MPs during the meeting said that demonetisation has impacted the economy severely and worst affected are the rural areas, a source said.

The members also questioned the heads of public sector banks on rising NPAs, and digitisation after demonetisation.