The Privatization of Public Sector Banks (PSB) was announced by the Government in the Budget 2021. As per FM speech, Two Public Sector Banks and one Insurance company will be privatized this fiscal beside IDBI. Government had announced the same a year back but bankers’ Unions were silent and did not announce any stir or oppose the move.
Now suddenly they woke up and announced that any step towards privatization, dilution of government equity and/or further mergers and amalgamations of Public Sector Banks (PSBs) would face stiff resistance. Does it count anything ? Or Government has taken it seriously. A simple ‘NO’ rather they announced in the Parliament today.
The four officers’ unions are — the All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC), the All India Bank Officers’ Association (AIBOA), the Indian National Bank Officers’ Congress (INBOC) and the National Organization of Bank Officers (NOBO).
The four officers’ unions in the banking sector have cautioned the government that any step towards privatisation, dilution of government equity and/or further mergers and amalgamations of Public Sector Banks (PSBs) would face stiff resistance.
The resistance would not only be from the four unions but also from all the major stakeholders, according to a letter written by unions to the Finance Minister.
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The unions said“ We consider that any proposal for privatisation of PSBs is retrograde, ill-conceived and thoroughly inimical to the national interest…It is as clear as daylight that the only beneficiaries of PSB privatisation would be those entities who still owe the state-owned banks thousands of crores in corporate debt.
“We urge upon your good office to kindly rescind any such privatisation proposal, if on the anvil, not only for the PSBs but for all the PSUs (public sector undertakings), The Union Government should rather initiate policy discussion on the ways and means of reforming and strengthening the PSBs, they added.”
The unions said it was the PSBs, Regional Rural banks and old generation private banks that successfully implemented all the schemes of the government to provide the much-needed fiscal stimulus during Covid times.
They stressed that the development of infrastructure can only be attributed to the contribution of PSBs in the absence of any major DFIs (Development Financial Institutions.
“While private sector banks like YES Bank, and earlier the Global Trust Bank, NBFCs like IL&FS and DHFL, co-operative banks like Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank (PMC) etc. have witnessed failures in recent times, the PSBs have continued to ensure financial stability and security for the depositors.
“Experience tells us that strengthening the PSBs is the way forward for building an efficient, robust and stable financial sector in India,” the unions said.
This is just a talk and nothing else by the Unions !!!!
