Public sector banks (PSBs) can soon look forward to some improvements in their recruitment practises to bring them on a level-playing field with their private sector peers, according to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. “We have come up with a re-capitalisation programme for the next four years and hopefully this would induct capital strength into banks and improve their capacity”, he added.
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Addressing the 68th Annual General Meeting of Indian Banks Association here, Jaitley said PSBs need to be given more freedom and should be kept away from any political interference.
Speaking on various issues, Jaitley said the number of stalled projects has considerably declined and he was sure the the measure on anti-dumping duty on steel will provide some relief to both the domestic industry and banks battling NPAs. A panel headed by Justice A P Shah is finding options of hiring best quality talent.
He referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks at “Gyan Sangam” – a two-day brainstrorming session between the bankers and senior government officials in January – where he said no banks would receive formal or informal directives from the government.
Stating that the government has professionalised recruitments of senior management, Jaitley said, efforts were on to give a final shape to the Banking Bureau that will deal with all personnel-related decisions.
Jaitley also promised more steps to tackle bad loan problems including those involving state power providers.
“The power ministry is in active discussions with those states and a lot of them have responded quite positively”, he said.
In a stern message to the State power utilities, the Finance Minister said that the banks can not be expected to bail out the defaulters. “The final access or the last mile access is by the state discoms”, he explained. He observed that very few States had carried-out power sector reforms and the situation would not improve unless the users were made to pay for the electricity consumed.
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The government was getting ready to unveil a draft for a bankruptcy code at the end of this month or in early October, Jaitley added.
