The Finance Minister Mr. Pranab Mukherjee today said that the banking sector in the country is being expanded for better coverage of rural areas.Replying to supplementaries in the Lok Sabha today, he said that all those villages where population is more than two thousand will have banking facilities by the end of this fiscal.He elaborated that places with smaller population will also be covered later. Mr. Mukherjee said that the cooperative banks in the country are also being strengthened. He said every year five thousand branches of the banks are opened.The Finance Minister said that income tax refund claims are regularly being processed. He, however, admitted that in some cases refund may not be issued in time due to difficulties in the processing.This, he said happens due to wrong quoting of PAN Number in the return. The Minister informed the House that the Income Tax Department is constantly monitoring the procedure so as to upgrade the existing system to avoid delays in the refund.