 Finance Minister Nirmala Sita-Raman's mega-bank merger plan, if successful, will see 10 public sector banks merged into four. I'm here with Somya Dutta from the General Secretary of the All India Banking Officers' Confederation. Hello, sir. Welcome. It's the golden jubilee year of bank nationalization. So, such a decision coming at such a time, what does it imply and what is the impact going to be of this decision to merge all these public sector banks? First, let us talk about bank nationalization. 19th of July 1969 and 14 banks were nationalized. Now, we have to understand that it was a political will that announced the bank nationalization and it was a prescription for the economic situation prevailing at that point of time. The economic situation of the country was in doldrums and there were several suggestions that to improve the economic position to make India self-reliant, banks have to be nationalized. The owners of the banks at that time were not in agreement with such a proposal. There was resentment inside Congress also, but despite such a syndicate working against the basic principles of nationalization, late Srimati Indira Gandhi announced nationalization as a prescription to lift out of the economic mess. Now, what happened after in these 50 years is absolutely a transformed the country? From total number of 8262 banked branches that was there before the nationalization, it is now standing somewhere around 140,000 odd branches. And in between 1969 and 1991, there was a huge explosion of banked branches. The number almost increased to 60,220 in 1991 and out of which the number of rural banks increased to 35,206. It was only about 1800 odd in 1969. So, it was predominantly intended so that credit reaches out to the rural households through priority sector lending to the small and medium size borrowers, artisans, villagers and it transformed the entire country. It is only possible because of the vehicle of engine of growth was driven by the public sector banks. Now, this just compare the economic situation of the country. A recession has set in although I mean the credit rating agencies and the various other agencies they are terming this as economic slowdown. And now to get out of the mess, to get out of the whatever the GDP numbers are coming, a new prescription has been put in place. You consolidate or amalgamate the public sector banks that will generate this growth rate that will stake us to the 5 trillion dollar economy. Now, this is another political will of a different kind of working. It is reversing the entire process of nationalization, whatever it has been achieved through this glorious 50 years of journey is now being reversed. This is the basic situation. So, this is we are standing as such a cusp of time. When the public sector banks their heritage is being obliterated. We already experienced a merger of three banks into one entity last year which all in the bank of his confederation had challenged the basic legality of the process. And the case is still there still live in Supreme Court. Although the supposedly the three banks have been merged into one entity, the bank of Baroda. But what is the result of mergers? Why is it happening? We have some very interesting facts and figures. The first merger of public sector bank that ever took place that was in 1993 the new bank of India was merged with Punjab National Bank. And what happened was very strange. It posted a loss of first time Punjab National Bank are very strong bank posted a loss of 96.90 crore in 1996. And RBI came out with a study report that was published is still available you can check the RBI website. That was report was published on 4th of October 1999 where it said I will just read out. It said that the experience of bank mergers in the public sector has so far been limited to that of new bank of India with a comparatively strong Punjab National Bank in 1993. The result of this merger was no different from the worst apprehensions expressed in that report. A direct result of the merger was that PNB a strong bank with uninterrupted record of profits had to record a net loss of 95.90 crore. The merger clearly demonstrated the futility of merging banks with different work cultures, ethic and skill levels of employees. Where by even the strong bank was put to severe stress till today little evidence is available on any worthwhile advantage of having a crew to PNB from the merger. And this report is sacrosanct whatever has been stated is still sacrosanct. Now, our experience is that this merger is a deliberate attempt to destroy the social fabric of the country. What is happening in the defense sector? The audience factory employees and offices had gone on an indifference strike. The railway workers are agitated. They are also planning some action. What is happening with BSNL, MTN and any public sector institution? All the institutions are under attack. And the attack is not limited to the banks as I said. For the banks despite such attacks despite such attacks despite all 12 banks being put under PCA prompt corrective action by RBI. The market share of the banks that is the trust the people of the country repose on the public sector banks has not really dwindled. If I am not mistaken about the numbers even at this point of time around 67 of the total deposits belong to the public sector banks. 63 of the advances belong to the public sector banks. So, this is a clear motive to hand over the public sector banks to their owners which control these banks prior to 1969. Of course, the owners will be different. But the fact remains that this is a precursor to privatization. All this Hala Bulu, this hype of getting amalgamated having this big global banks. Even if all the banks are consolidated we will not reach the size of a global bank. What we need today are good banks not necessarily big banks. What has a merger of state bank with its associates has taught us? For the first time in history state bank posted a staggering loss of 6547 crore in 2018. Till as of now state bank is yet to come out of that merger the banks of the merger. Thousands of branches have been closed. Our honourable finance minister says that there will be no job loss. Of course, there will be no retrenchment. But people will be compelled to take voluntary retirements. Of course, if you resign on your own it cannot be termed as termination. There will be pressure on the employees and officers because recruitment has stopped. With the large scale closure of branches there will be closure of branches. Why are we opposing? That is a good question. Are we afraid of our jobs? No. We are afraid that the entire as I said the nation will be affected. The common people will be affected. The interest of the common man will be affected. Suppose the public sector banks are reduced in number. The number of branches will shrink. And this will yield space to the non banking finance companies, the fintech companies who are wanting to get into that space at the cost of the public sector banks. And even in United States of America there is a tremendous resentment of this against its merger of banks. The argument that they have put forth is that mergers of bank will lead to job losses. It is not only the employees. Millions of people are connected with the banks. Suppose 5 ATM counters are closed down. It means 5 security guards will be losing their job, losing their livelihood. And so many other people who are connected to the entire banking industry they will be out of work. And those numbers cannot be measured because we are looking at the numbers of the employees. And the government will say that nobody lost their jobs. But that is not the true story. That is not the fact. The fact that it will lead to cross unemployment and it will not boost our economy in any case. Because whatever has been being propagated can only be driven by the public sector banks. In United States of America as of now there are 5000 banks operating. In Germany 2000 banks. In Newca there are 300 banks. In India there are only 86 banks with such a vast country. The country is more banks, more number of public sector banks, more number of branches so that it can reach out to the poorest of the poor. What is the credit outflow? It is coming down. Post 1991 the rural credit is coming down the percentage. The corporates are enjoying the cream. Now if you analyze the cross capital formation over the years you will find that capital formation is coming down while cross NPA is coming up, is rising steeply. What does it mean? It means that the corporates are looting the public sector banks. National resources are being looted. The public sector banks does not belong to the government. They do not belong to the government. The owners of public sector banks is a state. The government is just an exuberant of the state that we have to understand. So that is why we are urging upon the common man. We are spreading this message across the country that let us fight. Let us fight against this narrative. Let us build up our strong opinion like what we did for the FRDI bill. There it was a mass movement. Just because the mergers have been announced it does not mean that a mergers will take place. If we can build up the momentum, we can involve the common people, the farmers, our all the stakeholders together, together we can resist. So that is our appeal to all our viewers that come and protest against this draconian retrograde decision which will affect the social fabric of the country. Thank you so much sir for sharing with us why this bank mergers not only going to affect bank officers and employees but also the citizens of this country who also have a state in the public sector bank. Everyone is a stakeholder and we have to fight for our rights. We are ready for a struggle. We are ready for a fight.