KARACHI - The governments decision of slashing number of working days from six to five for conserving electricity in the country as a part of its energy conservation strategy has hailed by the banking sector as this move could reduce the mounting administrative expenses of the banks. According to some bankers, the announcement of two days holidays would have positive implications for the banking sector and it is unlikely to affect banking services and operations being offered by banks towards their customers by this decision as prior to this notification, most of the offices of financial institutions and corporate sector used to observe five working days and closed on Saturday and Sunday for official dealings. However, on Saturdays the timing of the banking operations was 9 am to 12 pm in the public sector and the banks in the private sector were observed a 5-hour working day. On a query a banker said, there would be no negative impact on the paper-based or paperless, whatever mode of banking from reducing working days and hours. The banker further said the revenue growth and profitability arising from deposit and advances segments of the banks would remain unaffected even the said move would pave the way for bring down the operating cost of the banks branches situated across the country. It is important to mention here that most of the small and medium sized banks have been facing fall in their earnings including net and non-interest incomes due to rising inflationary pressures. Moreover, banks advances portfolio is expected to increase as a consequence of governments plan to provide Rs116b to power companies for resolving their circular debt amount withheld oil marketing companies. In this way, the demand of working capital credit from the private and from the public sector enterprises to overcome energy debt could be risen in the upcoming days.