Page 11 - Banking Finance April 2018

RBI CORNER

RESERVE BANK

NEWS
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RBI recommends privati- Retired RBI staff want revision in pension
sation of PSU Banks Retired employees of Reserve Bank of India staged a protest before the cen-
tral bank's office in Bengaluru against non-revision
RBI governor Urjit Patel has said that of pension. The former employees, under the ban-
the govern- ner of Reserve Bank Retired Employees' Associa-
ment should tion (RBREA), demanded immediate revision of
decide what
pension and wanted the government to stop ille-
to do with
gal, unwarranted interference in the administra-
public sector
tive matters of the central bank.
banks (PSBs)
if it wanted KV Padmanabhan, Secretary, RBREA, said: "The pension of RBI retirees has not
to optimise been revised for the past 16 years, reportedly due to interference and instruc-
the use of tions from the Finance Ministry." He further added that "such revision will not
taxpayer money. result in any burden to the exchequer as the entire expenditure will be met by
the RBI from its own Pension Fund created for that purpose out of the RBI
Speaking on the fraud at Punjab Na-
contributions surrendered by the employees when they opted for the pension
tional Bank for the first time, Patel
scheme introduced in 1990, in line with the central government pension
said, "We at RBI also feel the anger,
scheme."
hurt and pain at the banking sector
frauds and irregularities. In plain, Padmanabhan said those who have retired from the armed forces, Central and
simple English, these practices State governments and public sector undertakings are given periodical revision
amount to a looting of our country's of pension, resulting in huge financial burden to the government exchequer.
future by some in the business com- However, he said, the pension of 26,720 RBI retirees were not revised during
munity, in cahoots with some lend- the last three wage settlements of serving employees in 2002, 2007 and 2012,
ers." In a pointed accusation at PNB, resulting in very serious anomalies between the senior retirees and those who
Patel said the fraud was essentially retired later.
an operational failure with the bank
disobeying instructions. Government expects to receive Rs. 10,000 crore divi-
Patel chose his lecture at Gujarat Na- dend from RBI
tional Law University, Gandhinagar, to The government expects to receive Rs 10,000 crore ($1.5 billion) as interim
rebut finance minister Arun Jaitley's dividend from the Reserve Bank of India this month, people with knowledge of
charge that regulators who need to the matter said. The amount has been calculated for the six month through
keep a "third eye" perpetually open Dec. 31, the people said asking not to be identified as the information is pri-
are, unfortunately, not accountable.
vate. Reserve Bank of India's financial year runs from July to June.

BANKING FINANCE | APRIL | 2018 | 11