Government tables SBI Bill in Lok Sabha
The government today introduced the State Bank of India (Amendment) Bill in Parliament to give SBI more leeway to raise capital from the market through preference shares, bonus shares and private placement of shares. The Bill proposes to bring down the minimum government shareholding in the country’s largest bank to 51 per cent from the 55 per cent prescribed in the existing law. The Bill, presented by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in the Lok Sabha, proposes to increase the authorised capital of SBI to Rs 5,000 crore, enabling the government to increase or reduce it in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India. “The Bill proposes to amend the SBI Act to allow the issued capital of the State Bank to be raised by preferential allotment of shares or private placement or public issue or rights issue,” the finance minister said while introducing the Bill. At present, the Centre holds 59.41 per cent in SBI. The bank does not have much headroom to raise capital by diluting the gover...