THE TRUTH ABOUT DEPRECIATON

In one of the branches of an Indian Public Sector banks in Mumbai the newly appointed clerical staff working at the cash counter where he needed a new pen urgently, because he had to sign the vouchers provided to him by the customers who paid and received cash from him. Due to heavy crowd at the counter, he had no time to approach the head clerk and obtain a new pen from her. So he continued using the same pen which faded intermittently while writing. In case you ever obtained a print on your passbook, you would have noticed the faded print. The ribbons on the printers are seldom changed. Doesn't the service quality get affected?

Meanwhile, when this guy shared his problem with the customer in front of his cash counter, he offered his pen and requested him to keep it as a gift to the bank. However the rules and regulations of the banking industry did not allow this guy to accept the support from this customer, so he refused. The newly joined staff in the Indian PSB's prefer to buy their own stationary rather than asking for it to their seniors. Why? Because they make them beg for it. The Indian PSB’s must be including the expenses on Stationary in their balance sheet, Right?

An old staff sitting next to him told him that when he was young and faced the same situation he had to approach the Head Clerk and request him for a new pen. The Head Clerk would then ask the clerk to show the empty refill and only then would provide him a new refill and not a new pen. 

The Indian Public Sector Banks very rarely enquire about their employees’ needs. However they never fail to scold them if they make even a silly mistake. Only the newly opened branches get the new stuff during their inauguration. This new stuff is used forever and ever until it breaks ex: Keyboards, Mouse and other computer peripherals, staplers, punching machines etc. The depreciation on the computers is calculated for only three years, that doesn’t mean that these PSB’s throw the old computers out as soon as they complete three years. They continue to use them till they can. 

Recently when one of the branches of an Indian PSB in Pune needed to install the Biometric devices on its computers, their data center informed that the computers were supposed to be discarded because they had already completed a period of three years. They also informed that they could install the software only on those computers which were covered under the agreement i.e. those computers which had not been used for more than three years by the bank.

How can we trust the balance sheet of the Indian Public Sector banks if the depreciation is not calculated properly?