Subsidy or support are against thought to make people Atmnirbhar. Why support to PSU Banks from public money when they have huge market capitalization and capable to manage their own funds.

[DEV KUMAR KOTHARI]

Subsidy or support are against thought to make people Atmnirbhar.

Why support to PSU Banks from public money when they have huge market capitalization and capable to manage their own funds.

From budget and news reports:

In Budget 2022, FM had announced a ₹ 20,000-crore capital infusion for PSBs. These banks account for about 2/3^rd of  assets in the Indian banking system over a long term period. However, unfortunately they have major portion of total stressed assets.

On the budget day the Nifty PSU Bank index was down more than one percent which included downward contribution of share price of State Bank of India ,with Punjab National Bank and Canara Bank also.

From Budget Speech -note below Annexure 2 to the budget speech namely

Annexure 2

Statement of Extra Budgetary Resources (EBRs) (Govt. fully serviced bonds, NSSF loan and other resources)

We find the following information:

(iii) An amount of ₹ 80,000 crore in 2017-18, ₹ 1,06,000 crore in 2018-19 and ₹ 65,443 crore in 2019-20 was infused for recapitalisation of Public Sector Banks (PSBs). For this purpose, a provision of ₹ 15,000 crore has been made in 2021-22.

Analysis

₹ 80,000 crore in 2017-18

₹ 1,06,000 crore in 2018-19

₹ 65,443 crore in 2019-20

₹ 15,000 crore in 2021-22.

Total in four years is thus ₹  266443 crore.

The important question is why PSU banks are dependent of government support. Why they cannot be asked to improve their working and capital structure.

Public sector banks market data of 04.02.2022:

Public sector banks market data including Market capitalization on close of trading hours on  4^th February,2022 are given in table.  

Although this day NIFTY PSU Bank index was down by  1.92 % still we find that there is good market capitalization and therefore banks should not be supported by GOI out of tax paid by general public.

Company Name	Last Price	% Chg	52 wk High	52 wk Low	Market Cap (Rs. cr)
SBI	530.20	-1.83	545.00	321.15	473,182.90
Bank of Baroda	106.60	-2.74	111.90	61.80	55,126.72
Canara Bank	260.90	-1.49	272.80	124.35	47,330.66
PNB	41.45	-2.81	47.60	31.50	45,640.66
IOB	21.10	-2.31	29.00	10.94	39,884.09
Union Bank	48.00	0.10	54.80	32.20	32,806.79
Bank of India	56.50	-3.34	101.45	48.80	23,185.15
Indian Bank	168.45	0.33	194.80	96.20	20,979.46
Central Bank	21.55	-2.05	29.65	13.90	18,707.42
UCO Bank	13.45	-1.39	16.30	10.60	16,080.76
Bank of Mah	20.55	-2.14	31.95	15.06	13,831.17
Punjab & Sind	17.35	-0.86	23.79	13.47	7,031.38

In view of PS Banks being listed, having good market capitalization, there should not be need of GOI support through budgetary mechanism.

PSB should not work like government departments:

Although there has been lot of changes in style and functioning of PS Banks, still we find that there is much more required for professionalism, accountability, productivity and efficiency of PS Banks.

General public believe that there is political interference, use of PSB by Ruling parties at any time, corruption and mismanagement in PSB.

Corruption can be found in course of granting of loans as well as in course of recovery of loans. Loans given due to government or politicians dictates , for political mileage ( loan melas)  and non-recovery and delay in recovery due to corruption, and interferences need to be reduced to minimal.

We can find corrupt borrowers who bribe bank officers or have support of people in power are given red carpet welcome by bank officers in spite of fact that their loans are NPA, there have been many capital restructuring during past and lot of benefits have been given through settlements, CDR etc. Whereas honest borrowers who have not taken any concession and are paying regularly interest and repayment of loans are treated very badly by bank officers.  

Although the government grant may be in nature of capital or loans, the question is why it should be given by government and why banks should eye for budgetary support.