BANGALORE: Members of the Credit Card Holders' Association of India have urged Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram to appoint an independent body to prepare an income audit of all multinational banks in the country.

A resolution to this affect was adopted at the general body meeting of the association held on Monday. The association members, who came together for a national-level conference to discuss and resolve problems of credit hard holders, will submit a memorandum to the Finance Minister shortly.

Association general secretary C.V. Giddappa said that credit card holders were harassed by the banks, which annually earned a non-interest income of more than Rs. 6,000 crore. "There are more than one crore credit card holders all over the country and the rate of interest has been hiked from 36 per cent to 42 per cent. It is unfortunate that most of the salary earned by a credit card holder from the middle class goes towards paying interest," he said.

Additional amount

He demanded that the Union Finance Ministry take steps to recover the additional amount collected by banks over and above the agreed rate of interest and refund it to the cardholders.

The other demands included stipulation of maximum lending rate of interest and qualification and minimum standard for recovery agents, issuance of licences to recovery agents and recording of all telephonic conversations between banks and customers, he said.

Automatic debit from customers' accounts should not be permitted without written consent from the account holder, banks should be directed to withdraw existing false and frivolous criminal cases against customers and disputes should be settled amicably through Lok Adalats, Mr Giddappa added.

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