India's Chidambaram: Banks need to cut mortgage rates
NEW DELHI, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Indian authorities will ensure that banks lower home loan rates of existing borrowers while paring rates for new borrowers, the former finance minister said on Thursday.
"We have now prevailed upon bankers to cut their home loan rates," Palaniappan Chidambaram, who is now the home minister, told lawmakers in parliament.
Replying on behalf of the prime minister, he said: "We are talking to the bankers....They must reset the loan rates for past borrowers also."
The PLR (prime lending rate) has been brought down and even the floating rates for home loan rates must come down, he added.
Only state-run banks have so far cut home loan rates after the central bank slashed its key lending rate by 250 basis points since October. (Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy and Manoj Kumar; Editing by Harish Nambiar)
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