Banking Updates
RBI labels agitation plan as illegal, but staffers ready to take mass casual leave says union leader
Reserve
Bank of India (RBI) employees and officers would observe mass casual
leave on November 19 pan-India despite the plan being labelled as
"illegal" by the management, union leaders said.
The
agitation is to protest the government's plan to take away RBI's role
in public debt management and against the government's plan to increase
its stake in the monetary policy committee. The employees are also demanding revision of basic pension, which remained fixed and immutable.
The
United Forum of Reserve Bank Officers and Employees has declared the
agitation programme and claimed that about 17,000 RBI staffers would
join the agitation.
"Through
this programme the entire RBI staff will express their strong
opposition to systematic curtailment of functions, authority and
jurisdiction of RBI now escalated by the government," said Samir Ghosh,
convenor of the employee forum.
The
draft Indian Financial Code suggested doing away with the RBI
governor's veto power and proposed a seven member monetary policy
committee to take interest rate decisions by a majority vote. Of the
seven members, four are proposed to be government nominees.
"Short
term political calculations of the powers that be would henceforth
guide country's monetary policy instead of a long term objective which
RBI have been following assiduously," Ghosh said.
This is a big shift from the current practice where the RBI governor enjoy the veto power on interest rate.
Ghosh
also said that the finance ministry is giving final shape to shift
government's debt management functions from RBI to the proposed Public
Debt Management Agency (PDMA). This means RBI would lose some vital and
related money market operations.
The
RBI staff has been demanding improvement in pension scheme which
prevents the periodic updation of their basic pension, unlike central
government employees
