Parliament gives final nod to banking bill, debt recovery laws

21 Dec 2012 Evaluate

Paving the way for corporate houses to enter the banking sector, Rajya Sabha gave the final approval to the Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2012, which was pending for long. The action came after the lower house of parliament approved the bill on December 17. The Parliament also approved the amendments to the Enforcement of Security Interest and Recovery of Debts Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2012 or SARFESI law. These two bills will strengthen the financial sector and help in establishing large-sized banks, besides promoting financial inclusion.

While having a combined discussion on the two bills in Rajya Sabha, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said, ‘we need 2-3 world-sized banks. China has three among the world's top 20. We have none. We need more banks.’ By adding further he said, banks have opened 6,489 branches in 2011-12 alone that is around 18-19 per day. We don't have the capacity to open more branches. We need banks.

He also added that amendment was not intended to give banking licences to big corporate houses alone, but also to allow eligible public sector entities to enter the sector.

The debt recovery bill is aimed at facilitating recovery of loans by banks. Currently, there are 14 Asset Reconstruction Companies (ARCs) and as many as 64,000 cases are pending before the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT).

The Banking Bill was passed after the government dropped the controversial clause concerning allowing banks to trade in commodity futures.  The Bill will allow RBI to supersede boards of private sector banks and increase the cap on voting rights of private investors in PSBs to 10%, from one percent now. The bill will keep banking merger and acquisitions under the purview of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) as well.

Despite several disruptions, this winter session of Parliament considered and passed several crucial bills - making it the most productive session in two years. However, bills like insurance and the pension bill were not introduced in the Parliament.

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