Disinvestment: Government yet to decide on which banks to privatise, says MoS Finance Bhagwat Karad in Lok Sabha

The government is yet to decide which public sector banks will be privatised, Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Karad told Parliament on Monday said. 

"As per inputs received from the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM), the government has not yet decided on the banks that are to be privatised. The amendments to the relevant Acts are required to be done before initiating the process of privatisation," Karad said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

In Budget 2021-22, the government announced its intent to privatise two public sector banks (PSBs) during the year.

Bank unions have informed the government of their views and concerns regarding the privatisation of banks, according to the Minister of State for Finance.

Further, he said, "DIPAM has informed that the representations with regard to strategic divestment of CPSEs and banks received from various stakeholders including the employee's unions from time to time are duly examined as per the extant disinvestment policy of the government."

Responding to another question, he said that banks received 73,552 fraud cases totalling Rs 2.51 crore during 2019-20.

According to data from the RBI on frauds reported by Scheduled Commercial Banks under the category of fraud 'Card/Internet - Debit Cards, Credit Cards and Internet Banking', this number fell to 69,818 cases involving Rs 2.07 crore in 2020-21.

"As far as cases relating to cheating in the name of Covid vaccinations/booster dose is concerned, 5 complaints have been received by PSBs during the years 2019-20 and 2020-21, as per information received from PSBs," he said.

(With Inputs from PTI)