The purpose of the meeting is to review the performance of banks and the progress made in terms of speeding up the economy affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will hold a meeting with the heads of public sector banks on August 25. The purpose of the meeting is to review the performance of banks and the progress made in terms of speeding up the economy affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Sources said the meeting with the managing directors and chief executive officers (CEOs) of public sector banks (PSBs) is important considering the importance of the banking sector to drive demand and consumption.
This is the first face-to-face review meeting of the finance minister and heads of state-run banks since the pandemic began in March last year. Recently, Sitharaman had said that the government is ready to take all necessary steps to accelerate the economic growth affected by the Covid-19 epidemic.
Meeting Issues
According to sources, the situation of the bank, the progress of the restructuring-two plan announced by the Reserve Bank (RBI) is expected to be reviewed in the meeting. In the meeting, emphasis can be given to banks to increase credit to productive sectors. Apart from this, the Emergency Credit Facility Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) will also be reviewed in the meeting to be held in Mumbai, it said.
According to sources, the Finance Minister can also take stock of the situation of bad loans or non-performing assets (NPA). Apart from this, various reform measures of banks are also likely to be discussed. Explain that due to various efforts of the government, the bad loans of banks came down to Rs 6,16,616 crore (provisional figure) on March 31, 2021 from Rs 6,78,317 crore on March 31, 2020. Whereas on March 31, 2019, it was at Rs 7,39,541 crore.
There will be no privatization of any public sector banks this year
According to a report, privatization of two banks will not be possible in the current financial year. The government is also postponing it for the next year. The government has not yet taken any step towards the necessary approval from the Parliament regarding the privatization of banks. According to the Bloomberg report, the Finance Ministry has not yet finalized the final modalities regarding privatization.
