Public sector banks will require a pension corpus of Rs 4,700 crore in case employees opt for pension benefits in lieu of provident fund. Though there is pressure on the government to allow employees to go in for pension benefits in place of the existing provident fund, it is unlikely to give its nod on this.
At present, 2,85,000 PSU bank employees are under the PF net, which gives a steady return of 8.5%. However, bank employees feel that they should be given the option to choose their retirement benefits. ?Employees are willing to give up their PF benefits and go in for pension as it is monetarily more rewarding,? a senior official at a PSU bank said. He, however, added that at this stage, banks are not in a position to set up a corpus of that size as it would impact their bottomline. There is a Rs 10,000-crore PF corpus for banks.
All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA), in a letter to the Indian Banks? Association (IBA), has said the corpus could be set up if the there are contributions both from the management and employees. ?We are willing to discuss the issue with the IBA and provide a solution to the whole issue but the association strangle has not held any meeting,? said United Forum of Bank Unions convener CH Venkatachalam.
The unions have said the issue must be sorted out at the earliest. The unions plan to observe a nationwide strike by the end of the month to register their protest. Functioning in the PSU banks had come to a halt even on January 25 with the unions holding a strike.
Government officials said frequent strikes might impact the market share of PSU banks. ?These banks have to face competition from both foreign and private sector banks and holding frequent strikes may just lead to loss of customers,? a source said.