Govt to reduce holding in public sector banks to 52 per cent in phased manner

Government has decided to bring down its holding in public sector banks (PSBs) to 52 per cent in a phased manner to ensure that capital needs of banks are taken care of, Parliament was informed on Tuesday.

"The government will continue to support those banks with alternative strategies which will still not be able to raise capital," Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

The government has been using different criteria in different years for infusion of capital in PSBs, he said.

In 2014-15, the criteria of Return on Assets (RoA) and Return on Equity (RoE) was used to encourage banks to be more efficient in their operations so that internal accruals increase.

In a separate response, Sinha said that based on the recommendations of RBI central board, government has approved enlargement of six of the identification mark by 50 per cent and introduction of angular bleed lines in banknotes of Rs 100, 500 and 1,000 denominations.

Replying to another question, Sinha said, "the World Bank estimates that remittances to Bangladesh from its migrant workers in India in 2013 was $6.62 billion".

"This is 0.36 per cent of India's GDP", he added.

"Remittance from one country to another is a normal economic activity", he said, adding that India is the world's largest recipient of remittances and was estimated to have received $71 billion in 2014, as per the World Bank database.