Privatisation Of Bank: Two banks to be sold in the country, centre to speed up law change process

 

The Centre speed up the process of privatising two State-owned banks. News agency PTI quoted a source from the Centre as saying on Wednesday. The Modi government at the Centre had earlier amended the 'Banking Regulation Act' to pave the way for private investment in State-owned banks. According to sources, the Centre wants to pass a bill in this regard in the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said last year that the Centre wants to start the process of privatising some state-owned banks. Therefore, the Bank Nationalization Acts of 1970 and 1980 will be amended and the Bank Control Act of 1949 will be amended. According to finance ministry sources, the process has begun. The government has also started preparing the draft of the 'Banking Regulation Act'. If all goes well, the amendment will be passed in the monsoon session. Of course, there is a good chance of the opposition being hindered. However, due to the majority, the government should not have any problem in passing this law.

The amendment has been passed in parliament and there will be no bar on the privatization of State-owned banks. Only then will the process of privatization of state-owned banks begin. Initially, two state-owned banks have also been listed for disinvestment. The name of which two banks will be privatised is yet to be announced by the Centre. According to sources, the Modi government initially chose four medium-sized banks for privatisation. The four banks that were placed in the initial list for privatisation are Bank of Maharashtra (BoM), Bank of India (BoI), Indian Overseas Bank(IOB) and Central Bank of India. Later, niti aayog proposed that most of the shares of Indian Overseas Bank and Central Bank of India be sold. The Modi government can go ahead with the NITI Aayog's proposal.

This is not the end of it, the government also wants to complete the privatization process of the tate-owned company BPCL quickly. Sources claim that only 52.3 per cent stake in BPCL held by the Centre will be sold. Earlier, the Modi government had taken the initiative to sell the shares of BPCL. Initially three companies showed interest in buying bpcl shares. But in the end, only one company survives in the race, the sources claim.