The Mangaluru chapter of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has urged the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to revise the monetary limit of the cases handled under the Integrated Ombudsman Scheme to ₹5 crore.

In a letter to the Regional Director of RBI, Bengaluru, Jeevan Saldanha, Chairman of the Mangaluru chapter of CII, said that the present monetary limit of cases handled by the Ombudsman Scheme is ₹20 lakh.

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Stating that this limit was fixed long back and never revised, he said: “We suggest that the limits may be substantially increased to ₹5 crore so that most of the disputes do get covered under the scheme.”

He said that RBI had made one important decision with respect to the Integrated Ombudsman Scheme in the Monetary Policy statement issued on February 5. To make the Ombudsman mechanism simpler, efficient, and more responsive, it was decided to integrate three Ombudsman schemes and introduce centralised processing of grievances following a ‘One Nation, One Ombudsman’ approach. This was intended to make the process of grievances redressal easier by enabling the customers to register their complaints under the integrated scheme, with one centralised reference point.

Saldanha also suggested that the process of filing complaints be made simple and online under the Integrated Ombudsman Scheme. When a complaint is filed, a complaint reference number should be generated. The system should allow tracking of the complaint on the basis of the reference number, he said.

Also read: Insurance: Now file your complaints electronically to Ombudsman

There should be a definite timeline in resolving the complaint and this should be strictly monitored. The authorities concerned should get specific permission from the highest authorities in the RBI, if any case needs additional time to resolve for any reason, he said.

The entire process of redressal of complaints can be faceless, he said in the letter.

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