Key Points:
- Sitharaman said that the government has no intention to privatise all public sector banks in the country, on Tuesday, during a conference in Delhi.
- “Not all banks are going to be privatised. Interests of workers of banks which are likely to be privatised will absolutely be protected,” Sitharaman said.
- The United Forum of Bank Union had called for a two-day nationwide strike against the Privatization of the Banking Sector.
On Tuesday, the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, amidst the increasing tension of the banks and their strikes happened to address the topic of the Privatization of the Banks. Sitharaman said that the government has no intention to privatise all public sector banks in the country. She said this on the last day of the two-day bank strike against the privatisation move.
Sitharaman assured the Banks and its Employees that all the steps that are being taken, when privatized, are in the interest of the existing employees working at public sector banks. “It will all be taken care of,” Sitharaman said.
Her comment came during a press conference in New Delhi, where she announced that the Union cabinet has cleared the bill to set up the Development Finance Institution (DFI).
“We have announced a Public Enterprise Policy where we have identified four areas where public sector presence will be there. In this, the financial sector is there too. Not all banks are going to be privatised. Interests of workers of banks which are likely to be privatised will absolutely be protected — whether their salaries or scale or pension, all will be taken care of,” said Sitharaman.
“Even for those banks which are likely to be privatised, the privatised institutions too will continue to function after privatisation; the interests of the staff will be protected,” she added.
The Finance Minister said, “We want financial institutions to get more equity. More people [should be able] to put in money into them to make them sustainable, we also want their staff to be able to perform the duties.”
The umbrella body of 9 bank unions, The United Forum of Bank Union that consists of over 10 lakh employees and officers had called for a two-day nationwide strike in order to protest against the Privatization of the Banking Sector as mentioned by the Finance Minister during the announcement of the yearly Budget.
