Center should privatize all public sector banks (PSBs), but State Bank of India (SBI) said a report on privatization of PSBs prepared by National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) Director General Poonam Gupta – Economic Advisory Council Member of Prime Minister – and Arvind Panagariya – Professor, Columbia University and former Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog.
“We propose that the matter of privatization is applicable to all PSBs including SBI. But we believe that within the Indian economic framework and political ethos, the government would like to retain at least one PSB in its portfolio. Thus, taking into account its size and relatively better performance, we propose that the target for now should be privatization of all public sector banks except SBI, “Why, how and how to privatize public sector banks in India”. How far?” Read a report titled.
The report said that the government should start the privatization exercise with two strong banks. “In our view, towards privatization of all the 11 PSBs, it is important that the first two banks selected for privatization set an example for future privatization success. May be those with lowest NPAs in last five years,” it read. As per the government plan, two weak banks are likely to be privatized.