Central trade unions, independent sectoral federations and associations on Monday extended support to United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) and announced total opposition to the privatisation of public sector banks.
The bank unions under the banner of United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) have been waging a relentless battle against the moves of the government to privatise the banks, stated a joint statement issued by INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, TUCC, SEWA, AICCTU, LPF, UTUC along with Independent Sectoral Federations and Associations.
Their struggle also exposes the moves of the government to privatise other core sectors of the economy, such as the Railways, Coal, Defence, and other PSUs, which have been continuously opposed; it stated and extended support the Dharna which is scheduled to be held before the Parliament on July 21.
In a developing country like India, the banks, which are dealing with the huge public savings, need to be in the public sector because of the bitter experiences in the past where many private Banks have collapsed and the people lost their precious savings, it stated.
Today total deposits in the Banks are more than Rs 165 lakh crore and the top priority is the safety of this people’s money, it mentioned. For the development of the economy, these deposits have to be deployed in important and needy sectors of the economy.
Only public sector Banks extend loans to priority sectors like agriculture, employment generation, poverty reduction, health and education, women’s empowerment, credit to small, medium and cottage industries, exports, etc.
Private sector banks are interested in giving loans only where profits are more assured and not for social needs of the country, it added.
In the last five decades, that large number of branches have been opened in the remote rural areas only by the public sector banks to reach the common people and private banks do not open branches in these areas under the plea of them being non-profitable, it further stated.
There is no case of privatisation of public sector banks because it is only the big private corporate companies which are the major defaulters of huge bank loans due to which banks are incurring large amounts towards provisions, write offs and haircuts, it mentioned.
Handing over the banks to the private sector makes no sense at all, it added.
