No proposal for consolidation of PSBs: Govt

The government today said there is no proposal for consolidation of public sector banks (PSBs) at present.
"There is no such proposal under the consideration of the government for consolidation of PSBs at present," Minister of State for Finance Santosh Kumar Gangwar said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
The government had in February approved the merger of five associate banks with SBI. In March, the Cabinet approved the merger of Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB) and SBI as well.
Five associates, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (SBBJ), State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH), State Bank of Mysore (SBM), State Bank of Patiala (SBP) and State Bank of Travancore (SBT), besides BMB became part of SBI from April 1.

SBI first merged State Bank of Saurashtra with itself in 2008. Two years later, State Bank of Indore was merged with it.
Gangwar, in another reply, said SBI has informed that there is no plan to launch Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) in the bank.

SBI also said that no employees have been laid off on account of merger, he said.
However, he said, VRS was offered by the erstwhile associate banks of SBI to their employees and officers before the merger and 3,569 staff opted for it.
Replying to another question, Gangwar said RBI has informed that there is no proposal under consideration of levying parking surcharge on deposits.

In reply to another question, Gangwar said, LIC has invested Rs 1.84 lakh crore in government securities, Rs 29,152 crore in equity shares and Rs 27,482 crore in debt other than government securities during the nine months ended December 31, 2016.
LIC had booked a profit of Rs 13,927.59 crore in the nine months ended December 2016 as compared to Rs 11,108.72 crore in the same period a year ago.
In a separate reply, Gangwar said, over 8.56 crore loans have been sanctioned across all age groups under Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) as on July 28.