Both houses of the parliament are finally in session after being adjourned for four consecutive days due to a deadlock between the government and the opposition, that ended in agreement on Monday. The government and the opposition parties agreed on a special discussion on the Constitution during the session after the floor leaders from all parties met following a call from Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.
During the ongoing winter session of the parliament, the Finance Minister of India, Nirmala Sitharaman, has tabled a bill in the Lk Sabha that proposes amendments to the Reserve Bank of India Act 1934, the Banking Regulation Act 1949, the State Bank of India Act 1955, the Banking Companies Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings Act 1970 and the Banking Companies Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings Act 1990.
While speaking in the house, the Finance Minister stated her purpose for introducing amendments to the said acts. While quoting the Union Budget 2023-2024, the finance minister iterated her purpose for introducing these amendments and said, “To improve bank governance and enhance investor protection, certain amendments to the Banking Regulation Act, the Banking Companies Act and the Reserve Bank of India Act are proposed.” She further said, “In order to achieve the same, amendments to the following acts are being proposed through the Banking laws”
19 Amendments Proposed
A token of 19 amendments has been put up for discussion, in which one amendment has been proposed in the Reserve Bank of India Act 1934, 12 amendments have been proposed in the Banking Regulation Act 1949, and the State Bank of India 1955 has two amendments. Moving further, the Banking Companies Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings Act 1970 has two amendments, and the Banking Companies Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings Act 1978 has two amendments as well.
The Finance minister has proposed these 19 amendments through the Banking Laws amendment bill. The Finance Minister also highlighted seven of the proposed 19 amendments and said, “These amendments to the Banking Amendments Bill of 2024 are being introduced now; it was actually introduced on the 9th of August 2024, the proposed bill seeks to improve on governance standards, provide consistency in reporting to the Reserve Bank of India, ensure better protection for depositors and also for investors, improve audit quality in public sector banks, and also to increase the tenure of directors other than the chairperson and whole-time directors in cooperative banks.
Bill Faces Criticism
During the session, Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi criticized the new Banking laws amendment bill and put into question this major policy descision and the impact it will have on the citizens of the nation. Gogoi accused the ruling party of focusing on optics rather than real outcomes, citing demonetization, claims of a digital economy, and the implementation of GST as examples.
Referring to the demonetization announcement on November 8, 2016, Gogoi said:
“Aaj se lagbhag 8 saal pehle, jab raat hi raat ek rule aaya ki 500 aur 1000 ke note gayab, uss samay desh ne dekha ki pradhan sevak aaye aur kaha ghar me shaadi hai lekin paise nahi hain.”
