New Delhi: FinanceMinister Arun Jaitley on Friday said in Lok Sabha that there would be no lossof jobs due to merger of public sector banks. Earlier this week, the Cabinetapproved merger of Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank with Bank of Baroda.
Jaitleysaid that there would be no job losses due to merger of the banks and that themove would create a bigger entity like the State Bank of India (SBI). The costof lending could also become cheaper, he added. During the Question Hour, theminister said that out of the 21 public sector banks, 11 are under PAC (PromptCorrective Action) framework.
PACis initiated against banks that have high levels of non-performing assets(NPAs). Replying to a supplementary question, Jaitley said the curve ofnon-performing assets would go down and that the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Codehas helped in bringing back around Rs 3 lakh crore into the system. Jaitleysaid that the State Bank of India (SBI) and other public sector banks have beenmaking operational profits. They incurred losses due to provisioning fornon-performing assets, he added.
Withregard to recapitalisation of Public Sector Banks (PSBs), the minister saidthat Rs 51,533 crore has been infused into them in the current financial yeartill December 31. “In the budget estimates of FY 2018-19, Rs 65,000 crorehas been allocated for recapitalisation of PSBs and an amount of Rs 51,533crore has been infused in PSBs till December 31, 2018,” he said. Theminister also said that in recent past, Rs 90,000 crore was allocated in theUnion Budget and infused in various PSBs by the government during financialyear 2017-18.
