Banks ‘causing inconvenience to customers in Ramazan’

[LRE]

Banks ‘causing inconvenience to customers in Ramazan’

By Nauman Tasleem

LAHORE: A number of banks are causing inconvenience to customers through various means such as not following the central bank’s timings, refusing to accept utility bills, not opening all counters and charging parking fees from customers.

These banks are not follow the timings set by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and open with a delay of five minutes and close their gates five minutes earlier. The SBP has fixed the bank timings for Ramazan from 8:30am to 12pm. Customers said that in the month of Ramazan, bank officials are already working less in comparison with routine days. In normal days, the banks work for eight hours, as they open at 9am and close at 5pm but due to Ramazan, banks are allowed to give relaxation to their workers and only three-and-a-half-hour banking takes place. Bank customers told Daily Times that some banks open with a five-minute delay and close five minutes earlier.

Adding insult to injury, if there are six counters in the bank, only three are usually open or even two sometimes. As a result, long queues have been witnessed at banks, making banking an ordeal for customers.

“The SBP should intervene and asks these banks why they aren’t following instructions and making customers suffer,” said a businessman Rana Adil Mehmood adding that he has to wait for two hours to deposit cash in his account.

“There are six counters in the bank where my account is but only three are operational while three are closed, as the bank is short of staff. The bank is making customers suffer for its own faults,” he lamented.

Some banks have also started a new practice in case of utility bills. Officials in these banks tell customers that only one utility bill can be deposited.


http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...2008_pg5_5