Concerned at the slow transmission of policy rate changes by banks, the Centre plans to replace interest subvention schemes with interest subsidies that do not interfere with lenders’ marginal lending rates. The government has also asked states to coordinate with one another in market borrowings so that there is no liquidity crunch. “We need to revisit our interest subventions schemes and replace them with back-ended interest subsidies that do not interfere with the marginal lending rates, and yet have the same effect on the loan repayments as the interest subventions have,” Finance Secretary Ratan Watal said at a meeting with state finance secretaries here on Monday. While the focus is on setting policy rates, equally important is the monetary policy transmission, said Watal. “This cannot be left entirely to the central bank. Our policy interventions can often interfere with the transmission of monetary policy actions.” Noting that banks have moved to a new system of marginal ...