Parliament nod for merger of State Bank of Saurashtra with SBI

"The pay and allowances and service conditions of the employees of SBS will not be altered to their disadvantage," Minister of State for Finance Namo Narain Meena said as the House approved the two bills to given effect to the merger that took place in 2008.

The bills to repeal the State Bank of Saurashtra Act and amend the SBI (Subsidiary Banks) Act were passed as CPI-M expressed its apprehension over the pay parity and other benefits of the transferee bank employees in the merged entity.

Opposing the Bill, Tapan Sen (CPI-M) said the merger would leave the Bank of Saurashtra employees in a lurch and lead to shrinking of rural branch expansion programme.
Allaying his fears, Meena said no branches of SBS are being closed as a result of the merger. "There should be no apprehension on this count", he said.

The Minister said the Government has a broad agenda of financial inclusion targetted towards providing better banking facilities. The merger would rather lead to more ATMs and more branches, he said adding services would improve. The associate bank was merged with the SBI in October 2008 following resolutions passed by the boards of both the banks.

The amendments, though a legislative formality, were opposed by CPI-M and CPI which saw in the merger a larger design to privatise the state-owned banking sector.