Bank unions approached Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for FRDI Bill Withdrawl. FRDI bill proposes to empower authorities with sweeping powers to wind up public sector banks and insurance companies. The Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance (FRDI) Bill, 2017, was tabled in the Lok Sabha last month. It was referred to the 30-member committee comprising members of both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.
Withdraw FRDI Bill, Bank unions ask Fin minister
Already, there are many rules and legislation in place under the existing Acts that deal with winding up of financial institutions, United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) said in its representation to the finance minister.
“The objective of this Bill is obviously to heavily empower the new authority with sweeping powers to dismantle and erase public sector financial institutions like banks and insurance companies and hence, it is apparently draconian. “We demand the withdrawal of this Bill,” it said.
UFBU is an umbrella organisation of all banks unions.
Declare willful default as criminal offence : Bank unions
In a representation submitted last week, they also demanded declaration of willful default of bank loans as criminal offence. The RBI Act should be amended to provide for publication of the names of these defaulters, suggested All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA) General Secretary CH Venkatchalam.
“It will help in better recovery of bad loans. We also requested fin minister to accept the recommendations of Parliamentary Committee,” he said.
“Common public should not be harassed by increase service charges to recover the loss of revenue due to loan default by big corporates,” he said.
SBI and many other banks have reduced rate of interest of savings deposits.
