Even as the government is making efforts towards financial inclusion, Union minister of state for finance Pawan Bansal today said that nearly 160 million working people do not use any financial services, including banking. “We have 320 million salaried workers in the country at present and half of them do not make use of any sort of commercial services, including banking service, which is quite strange,” he said here while addressing a seminar on Investors Awareness. Bansal said that transactions involving Rs 66,000 crore take place every year in the country through informal sources. “It means that people still do not know the importance of banks and other financial services,” he said. Pointing out that the country has just 8-9 million people who invest in mutual funds (MFs) and equity markets, Bansal said that there is an urgent need to make the public aware of the investment opportunities available in the country. “There are a lot of investment opportunities in the market but the only requirement is to make people aware so that they can also invest in them and make profits,” he said.
