New Delhi, In the aftermath of impressive trust vote win, the UPA government has reportedly decided to push all key financial and other controversial bills, which had been stalled by the Left parties in parliament during Monsoon session that begins August 11.
According to a key government functionary, the two important bills regarding opening of pension sector for private players and raising voting rights of foreign entities in private sector banks would be passed during monsoon session of Parliament. "Bills on pension funds and banking regulation which deal with voting rights in private banks are already pending in Parliament. I suppose we should be able to take them up in the monsoon session," Minister of State for Finance Pawan Kumar Bansal said.
The government had introduced Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) Bill in Parliament in 2005, to allow new pension fund managers - both public sector as well as private to compete with the EPFO - with the PFRDA acting as an impartial regulator. This bill was kept in abeyance after Left parties threatened to oppose it.
The Pension Regulation (Amendment) Bill that seek to allow foreign investors to have voting rights in banks in proportion with their equity holding, rather than being capped at 10 percent was also introduced but put on hold after the Left parties insisted on its withdrawal.
Bansal said the profit-growth of banks could be affected in the first quarter ending June 30. "There may be slight impact on profit growth in first quarter," he said while responding to a question whether high interest rate and mark-to-market losses could affect profits. The government is also contemplating to further reduce the interest rate on employee provident fund and bring bills to further liberalize labour laws to allow both domestic and foreign companies to act freely.