Niti Aayog submits names of public sector banks to be privatised

New Delhi: Niti Aayog on Thursday (June 3) submitted the names of Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) to be privatised to the Core Group of Secretaries on Disinvestment. All the PSBs in the list will be privatised by FY22, as part of the government’s massive disinvestment process aimed at raising funds. 

"We have submitted the names (of PSU banks) to the Core Group of Secretaries on Disinvestment," a government official told PTI. 

According to Budget 2021-22, the Centre is looking to privatise two public sector banks and one general insurance company. Niti Aayog was given the task to identify the government-owned banks and insurance company that can be made private. 

Besides Niti Aayog, other members in the panel are the economic affairs secretary, revenue secretary, expenditure secretary, corporate affairs secretary, legal affairs secretary, Department of Public Enterprises secretary, Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) secretary and an administrative department secretary.

The names will go to Alternative Mechanism (AM) for approval after the Core Group of Secretaries, headed by the Cabinet Secretary, gives its blessings to Niti Aayog’s list. Following AM’s clearance, the final approval will be taken in a Cabinet meeting headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

In a recent interaction, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had noted that "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".

Sitharaman aspires that Indian banks need to be bigged, just like the State Bank of India (SBI).