AIBEA opposes RBI move to grant licenses to private entities-Business Standard-25.11.2013( Read my views given below)
Issuing of license will not only result in ignoring the priority sector but will also lead to profiteering: AIBEA
The All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) has opposed the RBI move to grant banking licenses to private entities and expressed apprehension that this will lead to "profiteering" and is "inimical" to the interest of the country.
"The government is proposing to give licences to various business houses like Tata, Birla, Ambani, etc, to start private banks. This is not only harmful for the country but also make banking very costly.
"The issuing of license will not only result in ignoring the priority sector but will also lead to profiteering as it will be the sole motive of the corporates. We oppose this proposal in toto," said AIBEA General Secretary C H Venkatchalam.
He was addressing a national conference of the Federation of Bank of India Staff Unions here.
The United Forum of Bank Unions, representing employees of public and private sector banks, has already announced observing of a one-day national strike on December 19 for various demands.
"...Prior to 1969, banks were owned by private business houses and because of their mismanagement, banks were nationalised by the then prime minister Indira Gandhi. Now, again giving license to private players will be harmful for our country," he said.
Venkatchalam criticised as "retrograde" the RBI guidelines over foreign banks. "RBI in its guidelines allowed foreign banks to take over our domestic banks even they do just over 3 per cent business in India. This should be withdrawn...We need further expansion of banks and strengthening of PSUs," he added.
Venkatachalam said the strike call was given for demands like takeover and merger of banks, rising percentage of bad loans in banks, handing over rural credit to private contract agencies, outsourcing of regular bank jobs, etc.
He said the AIBEA would observe December 5 as "All India Demands Day" by wearing badges and holding rallies.
"The demands include publishing names of defaulters of bank loans of above Rs one crore; making wilful default a criminal offence; amendment of recovery laws among others," Venkatachalam said.
My Views:
There is no doubt that new
corporate houses if awarded license for opening of new bank will do the
banking business for earning more and more profits only. They were and they
will be least bothered of pain of poor and that of common men .
Business houses are booking
exorbitant profits in selling of medicines and they do not allow generic
medicine business to flourish in nexus with politicians.Poor person cannot
dream of medical treatment in private nursing homes and private hospitals
because these private institutes are great cheaters, they extort lacs of
rupees from patients in the name of small treatment which government hospitals
can do in hundreds of rupees.
Business Houses have raised the
prices of houses to sky high and this is why purchasing a new houses
( flats in apartments), has become unaffordable for poor and even top
middle class families. Cost of houses and that of land has gone up
ten to hundred times in last few years and it is going up and up.
Rich Business houses have raised the
education cost , specially for higher education. Poor and middle
class families cannot afford admitting their children in private schools and
colleges. As long as education sector was not opened for private sector ,
tuition fees in schools used to be maxmum Rs. 100 per month and similarly
hardly Rs.500 in colleges for higher education. Now in the era of reformation ,
parent has to pay at least a lac rupee as donation as
also tuition fee per year for admitting his child in a private
school and similarly they have to pay Rs. ten lac to one crore in getting his
child admitted in colleges for MBA , engineering and medical studies.
When the position of medical care ,
education and houses has become so much costly and have beyond the reach of
common men only due to deficit administration , lack of monitoring in true
spirit and only because of failure of the government in keeping
institute run by the government in good condition and because of
rampant corruption, how one can dream of good results for poor and common men
.
It is the culture of the government
first to loot a government organisation, spoil it by mismanagement and make it
ineffective and totally defunct and then they plead for handing over the same
to private owner . And when they start the process of handing over the sector
to private sector they give rise to Coal Scam, Mines Scam, CWG Scam and so
on.
There is no doubt that pubic sector
was in the interest of the common men but due to bad politicians, public
sector's image is totally tarnished and this has given private sector an
opportunity to loot and exploit the consumer and needy persons.
No doubt , when they start banks,
they will focus on profits and for this purpose they will have to focus top
business houses and to compete with them public sector banks will spend
thousands of crores of rupees in only renovation as hither to done to compete
with ICICI and HDFC and AXIS bank.
It will not be astonishing
to know that in the era of so called reformation even public sector banks
has started focusing on bulk loans to earn profit and almost discarded poor and
common men for loaning purpose. Public sector banks in the name
of financial inclusion are simply giving free opening of accounts
to poor and common men and doing their duty as assigned by corrupt
politicians who are playing in the hands of rich houses.
If one peeps into the trajectory of
bad assets accumulated in public sector banks, it will become crystal clear
that ninety percent of their bad assets are in the hands of rich
business house and politicians or families having close nexus with high
profile politicians. Number of billionaire has grown in hundreds whereas number
of poor has grown in billions.
This is India and Indian story of
reformation
And privatization and globalization.
Goods and services not available to
India or are available at extraordinary high prices only because many of essential
goods are exported to earn higher and
higher profits. Even onions are exported leaving Indians weeping on price rise.
There is practically no control of government on black marketing, profit making
and hoarding. When prices of any commodity goes up and people of India cry against
price rise , clever politicians of Congress Party start talking of GDP growth and RBI talking on repo Rate etc.
As a matter of fact history repeats
itself. After 20 years of freedom, the then Congress Party government realized that
private banks were exploiting bank staff and these banks were beyond the reach
of common men. Poor were exploited by local money lenders. Smt Indira Gandhi nationlaised
the banks and gave great relief to poor
and common men along with bank employees from the clutches of exploiter bank
management and local moneylenders.
After twenty years of nationalization
, Congress Party led government reaslised that banks were not serving poor and
incurring loss due to poor monitoring, they thought it better to hand over the
banking sector to private business houses. Again banks discarded poor and bank
employees and started serving rich business houses.
Now time is ripe for the government
to understand that until politicians change their mindset and they stop
corruption completely they cannot dream of any reformation and any help to real
poor and real common men.
I salute AIBEA leaders who have taken the lead to
awaken the government from deep slumber and expose the dirty game of bad
borrowers. And there is no doubt that awarding new licenses for bank will
aggravate the problem instead of solving the problems of common men. Otherwise
government will continue to infuse capital in public sector banks and in return
private banks will continue to flourish as private telecom service providers are earning huge profits at the cost
of BSNL and private airlines are earning at the cost of Indian airlines.
India needs reformation of mindset
of politicians and officials and not that of banks or business sector as a
whole. Government cannot save India from disaster only by inviting and
promoting FDI until they reform their mindset and remove evil forces from the
system completely.
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