Not all banks will be privatised: FM

NEW DELHI: Amidst huge uproar from the Opposition and bank unions over privatisation of public sector banks, Union Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday assured that the interests of workers of such banks will be completely protected.

While addressing the media after announcing Cabinet decisions, the Union minister said: "I want to assure it is not that the institutions are going to be closed or workers are going to be removed. Whether it is the salaries or scale or pension of employees, all will be taken care of."

Stressing that not all banks will be privatised, the Finance minister said: "We have announced a Public Enterprise Policy and identified four areas where public sector presence will be there. Financial sector too is included in this. But, not all banks are going to be privatised."

Sitharaman's statement comes at a time when bank unions have called for a two-day nationwide strike to protest against the privatisation of two public sector banks.

State-run banks have been on strike since Monday, leading to disruption in services as over 10 lakh employees have joined the protests.

Further, stressing on the operations of banks, Sitharaman said there are quite a few banks in the economy but "we need banks which will be able to scale up".

Recollecting the move where the government had merged 10 PSU banks into 4 major entities last year, she said: "We need more banks of the size of the State Bank of India (SBI) to meet the aspirational needs of the country."

She emphasised that even those banks which are likely to be privatised, the institutions too will continue to function after privatisation.

In her Budget Speech on February 1, Sitharaman had announced that the government proposes to take up the privatisation of two Public Sector Banks (PSBs) and one general insurance company in the year 2021-22.

This would require legislative amendments and she had proposed to introduce the amendments in the ongoing Budget session of Parliament itself. The government has merged 14 Public Sector Banks in the last four years.

Meanwhile, the Congress on Tuesday asked the government to accept the demands of the nine unions of PSBs that are on a two-day strike and accused the Centre of working for the benefit of a few "crony capitalists".

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alleged that selling Public Sector Banks to "cronies" will compromise the country's financial security. He also accused the government of "privatising profit" and "nationalising loss".

Public sector bank employees began their two-day strike on Monday, employees of general insurance companies will strike on March 17, and Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) employees have given a strike call on March 18, Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha and senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said.

Despite so many people going on strike and protesting the policy of privatisation, the government is neither listening to them nor looking to solve their problems.

The government has taken a decision to privatise two public sector banks without consulting the 75 crore account holders, Kharge told reporters outside Parliament.

He said top 14 banks were nationalised by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi so that the poor and small and medium businesses can make use of them.

The government wants to hand over the country's wealth to a few by privatising nationalised banks, he alleged.

"We demand that the government should come clean on the issue. The demands of the workers of the nationalised bank must be accepted," he said.

On the other hand, Railways minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday asserted that Indian Railways will never be privatised but said private investment should be encouraged for more efficient functioning.

Replying to a discussion on Demands for Grants for Railways in the Lok Sabha, Goyal said there has been no death of any passenger in rail accidents in the past two years and the Railways has been putting an enormous focus on passenger safety.

The Lok Sabha later passed the Demands for Grants for Railways for 2021-22.

"Indian Railways will never be privatised. It is a property of every Indian and will remain so," Goyal said, adding that it will remain with the Government of India.