No pension, banking bills in winter session

The UPA government formally conceded that it had given up on the Pension Funds Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) Bill and the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Bill in the winter session of Parliament.

"I don't see any possibility of these Bills being taken up in this session. If at all any of them comes up, I will inform you," Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunshi said at a press briefing today.

Asked if he was ruling out any hope for these Bills, he said, "I don't think it will be possible, but definitely the progress of talks (with Left parties) is very good."

Notwithstanding his claims about the government's talks with allies, Left sources said that negotiations between the two sides on the Pension Bill had reached a dead-end long back with neither side ready to give in any more than it had already done in the last round of talks.

The talks were held between Left leaders including Sitaram Yechury from the CPI(M) and Gurudas Dasgupta from the CPI and government interlocutors including External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Finance Minister P Chidambaram about two weeks back.

Under pressure from West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, the CPI(M) had accepted the government's proposal to entrust the funds with public fund managers and was not even averse to their deployment in the stock market.

But the Left party wanted assured returns to government employees (50 per cent of the average monthly salary in the past three years) regardless of returns on the investment of these funds.

The government agreed to consider assured returns provided the Left had no objection to an increase in the premium to be paid by employees.

With the CPI and Left-backed trade unions rejecting all proposals of the government, the CPI(M) had to give up on the Pension Bill.

On the Banking Bill, the UPA regime was learnt to have agreed to accommodate the Left demand that foreign banks be barred from taking over Indian private banks in case of removal of the 10 per cent cap on voting rights.

The government proposed that the Left should then agree to allow Indian industrialists and banks to take over private banks. The Left had promised to get back to the government on this, but trade unions came in the way yet again.