There is no question of diluting government stake in public sector banks below 51%, Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Sunday.
?Some of the banks (PSBs) have declined budgetary support and told us that they can mobilise their own funding requirements. There is no question of diluting government?s stake in the banks below 51%, it would be well above it,? Mukherjee said.
Present at the credit delivery camps at Sagardighi in Murshidabad organised by United Bank of India Mukherjee said that for the past five years the government has been pursuing the banking reforms agenda. It is the strong government shareholding in the public sector banks that has actually enabled the banks in the country to tide over the economic downturn that had gripped the European and American economies, he said.
Mukherjee was present here to distribute token Kisan Credit Cards to farmers. UBI chairman and managing director SC Gupta said the bank would open 26 branches in West Bengal during the current fiscal, of which six would be in the Murshidabad district.