Public Sector Bank Privatisation: Centre Likely To Bring Required Legal Amendments In Parliament's Monsoon Session

A new report by CNBC Aawaz has claimed that Central Bank of India (CBI) and Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) has been shortlisted by Niti Aayog for privatisation and that the Narendra Modi led Central government could table amendments to the Banking Regulations Act and Banking Law Act during the Parliament's upcoming monsoon session to enable this divestment, News18 has reported.

It has been speculated over the past few weeks that names of banks like CBI, IOB and Bank of Maharashtra have been recommended by the Niti Aayog to a high-level committee headed by Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba.

The committee also comprises of top bureaucrats like the economic affairs secretary and revenue secretary. Once the names are cleared by the committee comprising of a core group of secretaries, it will be placed before the cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Amid these reports it has been claimed that many employees of the purportedly recommended banks have started searching for opportunities at bigger banks like the State Bank of India (SBI).

Meanwhile, Public Sector Bank (PSB) Unions have threatened an indefinite strike over the privatisation of PSBs in case of adverse announcements like loss of jobs or pensions.

Finance Minster Nirmala Sitharaman though has assured the bank employees that their interests will not be hurt in the privatisation drive.

"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", she had said.