More pension for bank employees to overseas listing roadmap — these are the highlights from Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's EASE 4.0 address

• Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman carried out an annual performance review of state-owned banks in Mumbai on August 25.
• The policy pitched to increase the pension payout to bank employees, which will allow them to get an even 30% of their pay.
• The government may announce a new ruling to allow Indian companies to get a direct listing overseas in the union budget of February 2022.

India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who launched the EASE 4.0 on Tuesday for institutionalising clean and smart banking, carried out an annual performance review of state-owned banks in Mumbai on Wednesday, August 25.

EASE 4.0 is the fourth edition of the Indian government’s Enhanced Access and Service Excellence (EASE) policy launched in January 2018. The government aims to create a common reform agenda for public sector banks with this policy.

These were the major highlights of the review —

1. Bank employees’ pension payout has been increased to 30% of last-drawn salary and can go up to ₹35,000.
2. Employee contribution to pension corpus is now up to 14%. Currently banks contribute only 10%.
3. Public sector banks have reached out to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) this week for a bad bank license.
4. The government would have a presence in life insurance, general insurance and reinsurance.
5. Government has reduced duties on several products on edible oils to keep inflation in check.
6. The government may announce a new ruling to allow Indian companies to get directly listed overseas, in the union budget of February 2022.
7. Banks are asked to make specific plans for the organic fruit sector of North East, Bengal, and Odisha.
8. The union government estimates that the inflation will remain within 4-6% bands.
9. Sitharaman also said that it’s too early to comment on whether credit is picking up or not.
10. Public sector banks have reported a profit of ₹31,817 crore, after a five-year loss-making streak.
11. Non-performing assets (NPAs) are down by ₹62,000 crore in the last one year to ₹6.16 Lakh crore.
12. Cases of fraud have decreased to 2,903 in the financial year 2020-2021.

The report also noted that public sector banks have approached the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) this week to get a licence for National Asset Reconstruction Company Ltd (NARCL) or bad banks, which will buy bad loans of other lenders and financial institutions. The proposal to offer guarantees on bad loans is also under consideration.

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