Bank Union express concern on rising NPA of banks

Patiala, Nov 25: Bank Union leaders today expressed deep concern over the increasing NPA of the banks in the country, which was touching Rs three lakh crore.

This concern was expressed at the end of the two day 20th Conference of All India State Bank of Patiala Emloyees Federation (AIBEF) and 6th Conference of State Bank of Patiala Employees Union here.

The Conference was attended by more than 1500 delegates from all over the country.

Addressing the delegate session, Comrade P S Sunderesan, former Vice President of AIBEF said that in the last three years Rs 52,000 crore of fresh NPA had been added in the banking system. The total NPA of the banking system had touched a level of Rs 3 lakh crorea, if interest is added to it, he claimed.

He further said that the mounting NPA was the cause of the problems afflicting the Indian banking sector. The All India Bank Employees Association had published a list of defaulters, where the NPA level was Rs one crore and above in each account.

Mr Sunderesan demanded that the recovery system of the banks needed to be streamline. The employees should come forward to fight for stern action against defaulters so that the banking system could be strengthened, he suggested.

Another union leader Mr N K Gaur, speaking against the merger of the associate banks with State Bank of India (SBI) said that in spite of the "Corporate Slavery" the performance of the associate banks had surpassed the performance of SBI in many functional areas.

Associate Banks with over 4,873 branches across the country,had a business turnover of Rs 3,43,764 crore and profitability was Rs 2,031 crore. These banks are major contributors to the Indian Economy, Mr Gaur added.

According to Mr Gaur the business volume of Associate Banks constitute over 48 per cent of the business turnover of SBI, which is due to excellent services provided to the customers. Thus the merger of Associate Banks with SBI was not justified, he added.

Mr C H Venkatachalam, General Secretary, AIBEF declared that the organisation will go for one day strike on January one to oppose the merger of Associate Banks with SBI.

The Conference also opposed the cross merger of public sector banks, with the motive to create 4-5 vigour banks in the country. It also opposed dilution of government equity in the nationalised banks.

The Conference pointed out that in the last 30 years 25 private banks had either been closed or merged with the other public sector banks. Despite these failures the government was advocating the privatisation of public sector banks, the Conference noted.

UNI