Bill To Privatise Two Public Sector Banks To Be Introduced In Winter Session

Government will introduce a bill in Winter session to enable privatisation of two public sector banks

Aiming to privatise two public sector banks, the government will introduce the Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill 2021 in the forthcoming Winter session of Parliament, which will commence from November 29.

The proposed legislation is among the list of 26 bills which are scheduled to be introduced during the session.

According to the purpose of the bill, in order to privatise two public sector banks, amendments need to be made in Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Acts, 1970 and 1980 as well as incidental amendments are required to be made in the Banking Regulation Act, 1949.

The bill is listed for introduction, consideration as well as passing during the forthcoming Winter session, according to official sources.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman while presenting the Union Budget for 2021-22 22 had announced the privatisation of two public sector banks as part of the government’s disinvestment drive to garner Rs 1.75 lakh crore in the current fiscal.

Apart from this, another significant bill scheduled to be introduced in the Winter session is the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2021.

The purpose of the legislation is to amend the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) Act to enable separation of National Pension System Trust from Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority.

Introduction of this bill will also fulfill the budget announcement of 2020 for ensuring universal pension coverage as well as strengthening PFRDA.

With the amendment in the PFRDA Act, sources said, powers, functions and duties of NPS Trust, which are currently laid down under PFRDA (National Pension System Trust) Regulations 2015, may come under a charitable Trust or the Companies Act.

The aim behind this is to keep NPS Trust separate from the pension regulator and managed by a competent board of 15 members. Out of this, the majority of members are likely to be from the government as they, including states, are the biggest contributor to the corpus.