Centre: SBI has no plan to launch VRS post-merger with its associate banks.
New Delhi: The government Friday said there is no proposal for consolidation of public sector banks (PSBs) at present. “There is no such proposal under the consideration of the government for consolidation of PSBs at present,” Minister of State for Finance Santosh Kumar Gangwar said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
The government had in February approved the merger of five associate banks with SBI. In March, the Cabinet approved the merger of Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB) and SBI as well.
Five associates, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (SBBJ), State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH), State Bank of Mysore (SBM), State Bank of Patiala (SBP) and State Bank of Travancore (SBT), besides BMB became part of SBI from April 1.
SBI first merged State Bank of Saurashtra with itself in 2008. Two years later, State Bank of Indore was merged with it. Gangwar, in another reply, said SBI has informed that there is no plan to launch Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) in the bank. SBI also said that no employees have been laid off on account of merger, he said. However, he said, VRS was offered by the erstwhile associate banks of SBI to their employees and officers before the merger and 3,569 staff opted for it.
Meanwhile, in a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said there are no regulations governing virtual currencies, including bitcoins, in India at present and the RBI has not given any licence to any entity/company to operate such schemes. “At present, there are no regulations governing VCs including Bitcoin (BTC) in India. Further, RBI has advised that it has not given any licence to any entity/company to operate such schemes or deal with Bitcoin or any virtual currency,” Jaitley said.
The minister further said that taking cognisance of concerns raised at various fora from time to time on increasing use of virtual currencies (VCs) and the regulatory challenges, the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) constituted a committee to look into this matter.
