ALL INDIA BANK OFFICERS’ CONFEDERATION
(Registered under the Trade Unions Act 1926, Registration No.3427/Delhi)
6th Floor, E-Block, Samriddhi Bhavan, 1, Strand Road, Kolkata -700 001

c/o State Bank of India Officers’ Association (Bengal Circle)

Circular No. 2021/19

Date: 01.03.2021

Dear Comrade,

COVID-19 PANDEMIC: TREATMENT OF PAYMENT / REIMBURSEMENT OF HOSPITAL EXPENDITURE MADE BY THE BANK MANAGEMENT – FOR TAX PURPOSE

We reproduce hereunder the text of the joint communique from four officers’ organisations addressed to the Chairman, CBDT, New Delhi dated 01.03.2021 on the captioned subject for your information. Copy of the letter has also been sent to the Chairman, IBA and MD & CEOs of all banks.

With revolutionary greetings,

sd/-
(Soumya Datta)
General Secretary

ALL INDIA BANK OFFICERS’ CONFEDERATION (AIBOC)
ALL INDIA BANK OFFICERS’ ASSOCIATION (AIBOA)
INDIAN NATIONAL BANK OFFICERS’ CONGRESS (INBOC)
NATIONAL ORGANIZATION OF BANK OFFICERS (NOBO)

The Chairman,
Central Board of Direct Taxes,
North Block,
NEW DELHI – 110 002.

Date: 01.03.2021

Respected Sir,

COVID-19 PANDEMIC: TREATMENT OF PAYMENT / REIMBURSEMENT OF HOSPITAL EXPENDITURE MADE BY THE BANK MANAGEMENT – FOR TAX PURPOSE

At the outset, we, the four officers’ organisations viz. AIBOC-AIBOA-INBOC-NOBO, representing the entire fraternity of officers in the banking industry, convey our sincere gratitude to you for providing breathing time by extending time norms for various income-tax-related activities as a solace to the taxpayers against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is a well-known fact that bank employees and officers, being part of the country’s financial army, have been rendering uninterrupted and yeoman service from the front line and therefore have been exposed to the contagion. More than lakh bank employees and officers and their family members have been affected by Coronavirus and many have succumbed to the deadly virus.

Sir, we wish to point out that the banks, as a part of the industry-wide bipartite settlement, are reimbursing the hospitalisation medical expenditure of employees within certain limits for the medical treatment taken by them from various hospitals for COVID-19 treatment. This reimbursement is of two types – direct payment to the hospital and reimbursement to the employee against relevant bills.

Any reimbursement of medical expenditure on account of hospitalisation is being classified into taxable and non-taxable income / perquisite for the employees. This classification is based on the specific diseases provided for in Circular no. 747 dated 02.12.1996 issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes. COVID-19 is not a part of the said list of specific diseases.

Consequently, the reimbursement of hospitalisation expenditure for COVID-19 being spent / reimbursed by the bank management to the employees is being classified as taxable.

Sir, it is a hard reality that the hospitals are charging hefty amounts for treating COVID-19 patients. It ranges from Rs.4.00 lakh to Rs.15.00 lakh depending on the severity of the disease. The employees are incurring huge amounts towards other related expenditure apart from the hospital bills. Unfortunately, after incurring such expenditure, many of our employees and their dependents did not survive.

Most of the senior officers / employees are in 30% tax slab and when the said reimbursement is added to their taxable income, they have to pay 30% of the said reimbursement amount as tax – ranging from Rs.1.20 lakh to Rs.5.20 lakh, even though there is no profit element or gain is there out of such payment / reimbursement of medical expenses made by the bank management.

The guidelines of CBDT about specific diseases are of 1996 and several new diseases have cropped up since then. Needless to emphasise, COVID-19 is one of the latest additions to critical diseases ever faced by the mankind.

Hence, considering the fact that the reimbursement / payment of medial expense made by the bank to its employees / officers is towards the treatment charges made by the hospitals and that there is no profit element to the employees, we urge upon your good office to revisit the list of specified diseases and notify a revised list of specific diseases including COVID-19, which will certainly be of immense help to the affected employees and / or their families.

We are certain that your good office will take a pragmatic and sympathetic view in the matter and issue necessary directives in this regard.

With regards,
Yours sincerely,

Sd /-
(Soumya Datta)
General Secretary
AIBOC

Sd /-
(Nagarajan S)
General Secretary
AIBOA

Sd /-
(Prem Kumar Makker)
General Secretary
INBOC

Sd/-
(Viraj Tikekar)
General Secretary
NOBO

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BIPARTITE TALKS WITH IBA ON 31-10-2020 – MOVING TOWARDS FINAL SETTLEMENT

ALL INDIA BANK EMPLOYEES’ ASSOCIATION
Central Office: “PRABHAT NIVAS” Regn. No.2037
Singapore Plaza, 164, Linghi Chetty Street, Chennai-600001
Phone: 2535 1522 Fax: 2535 8853 Web: www.albea.in
e mail – chv.albea@gmailcom & albeahq@gmail.com

CIRCULAR NO. 28/248/2020/86

2-11-2020

TO ALL UNITS AND MEMBERS:

Dear Comrades,

• BIPARTITE TALKS WITH IBA ON 31-10-2020
• MOVING TOWARDS FINAL SETTLEMENT

We reproduce herein the text of the Circular Jointly issued by AIBEA- NCBE-NOBW- INBEF on the outcome of the discussions with IBA held at Mumbai on 31-10-2020.

As would be observed from this joint communication, revised pay scales have been worked out as under.

Issues like PQP, Special Pay, Fixed Personal Pay, HRA, Medical Aid, etc. are being finalised.

There would be 9 stagnation increments for both clerical and substaff at an interval of 2 years each.

DA rate would be 0.07% per slab of 4 points over 6352 points of Index.

HRA rate would be uniform for all centres Al over the country as against existing 3 different rates.

DA will be payable on Special Allowance and Transport Allowance.

Revision in duties/ powers and quantum of allowance of Special Pay posts are being worked out.

Also check: Bipartite Wage settlement – INTRODUCTION OF 5 DAY WORKING WEEK IN BANKS

In view of all these issues nearing finality, stage is now set for the final settlement at the earliest. Already fake news in the name of AIBEA, false news, half-baked news, speculative news, etc. are active in the market. Other impediments are also being created. Hence all our units and members are cautioned not to be misled by all these attempts. Maintain unity and calmness. We cannot afford to divert our attention at this stage.

Yours comradely,
C.H. VENKATACHALAM GENERAL SECRETARY

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ALL INDIA BANK OFFICERS’ CONFEDERATION (AIBOC)
ALL INDIA BANK OFFICERS’ ASSOCIATION (AIBOA)
INDIAN NATIONAL BANK OFFICERS’ CONGRESS (INBOC)
NATIONAL ORGANIZATION OF BANK OFFICERS (NOBO)

Date: 03.08.2020

Shri Debasish Panda
Secretary
Department of Financial Services
Ministry of Finance
Government of India
New Delhi

Dear Sir,

INTRODUCTION OF 5 DAY WORKING WEEK IN BANKS

At the outset, we convey our greetings on behalf of four officers’ organisations of the banking industry. You are aware that the M.O.U of the XIth Bipartite Wage settlement has been signed on 22nd July 2020 after protracted negotiations spanning over two and a half years. There had been a number of roadblocks on the way, which have been resolved amicably through your timely intervention and fruitful suggestions. We take this opportunity to place on record our appreciation for the positive role played by your good office in resolving many of the issues confronting bankers.

Also check: Bipartite talks on 22 July 2020 – Bank issues like Merger of Special Allowance with Basic Pay

2. Sir, we draw your kind attention to a two day strike call given by the four officers’ organisations on 26th and 27th September 2019 in the backdrop of the announcement of Merger of 6 Public Sector Banks with 4 other banks as was announced by Hon’ble Minister of Finance on 30th August 2019. The strike notice served on the authorities (Government of India, and IBA), inter alia, had incorporated certain other pertinent issues too besides the merger of Banks were viz. a) Issuance of Mandate for wage revision by 5 banks to cover all officers; b) 5 day week; c) Pressure on officers to sell the third party products ; d) Revision of Family pension and e) Updation of Pension af ai.

3. On 23rd September, 2019, the representatives of the four officers’ organisations had a purposeful initial interaction with by Or. Madnesh Kumar Mishra, Joint Secretary DFS and subsequently with Shri Rajeev Kumar, the then Secretary, DFS where other senior functionanes of DFS were also present. During the discussions held with the then Secretary, DFS, on 5 day week, it was categorically assured that the demand would be actively considered. Even if ail Saturdays off at that point of time, could not be introduced, an additional Saturday off could well be worked out. Till date, there is no positive response In this regard.

4. As you are well conversant with the present day plight of the citizenry of our nation due for the pandemic COVID 19, we are of the considered view that with the spike in footfall, bank branches have become a community transmission hub of COVID 19, obviously a matter of serious concern, following the surge of infection amongst the bankers after the implementation of Unlock process. Several state governments have woken up to the realization and closed down bank branches on all Saturdays under N.I. Act to ensure that banks are closed on two consecutive days to “Break the Chain”. Further, despite tremendous constraints, the financial army has responded to the call of the nation in a magnificent manner during the period of crisis to render yeoman service with patience and precision. in the process, unfortunately hundreds of bankers have laid down their lives in the line of duty.

5. India is in the midst of digital revolution. As per experts, India is set to leapfrog many advanced countries in this space. Customers in the country are leaning towards digital adoption of financial services faster than previous estimates. There will be a paradigm shift in banking transactions from the brick and mortar banking to digital transactions concept. The PSBs have given priority in the development and expansion of alternate channel. Banks are making, in terms of long term planning, huge investment towards capex for alternate channel like ATM to cope with the digital revolution in financial services in the country. With the ongoing digital drive in the country, the number of users opting for online banking is expected to shore up significantly.

6. In the above backdrop, we would request your good self to explore introduction of 5 day working week on a pragmatic approach and take a holistic view on the issue in the given situation for a positive catalytic step in the direction of Digital India in conformity with Hon’ble Prime Minister’s vision. A positive move in this regard at this juncture will immensely benefit the centre fraternity of bankers along with the society to effectively combat the contagion.

With regards,
Yours sincerely,

(Soumya Datta) General Secretary AIBOC
(Nagarajan S) General Secretary AIBOA
(Prefn Kumar Makker) General Secretary INBOC
(Viraj Tikekar) General Secretary NoBO

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“Banking unions as they firmly rejected the proposal of IBA, lock, stock and barrel in the recent discussions held on 12th Oct,18 at Mumbai”

ALL INDIA BANK OFFICERS’ ASSOCIATION

CIRCULAR No.21/VII/2018

October 14, 2018

TO
ALL UNITS / STATE COMMITTEES

Comrades,

FALSE AND MALICIOUS PROPAGANDA
TO DEFAME THE BANK EMPLOYEES TU MOVEMENT
UNDER THE BANNER OF UFBU

Our attention has been drawn to a joint circular purported to have been issued by our organisation jointly with AIBEA. First up of all there is no meeting of 9 constituents of UFBU at Chennai today.

The contents are false, malicious and also to bring disrepute to banking unions as they firmly rejected the proposal of IBA, lock, stock and barrel in the recent discussions held on 12th Oct,18 at Mumbai. The release of the circular with the forged signatures of General Secretaries of AIBOA and AIBEA is squarely condemned.

Please don’t be misguided by the false news.

We are initiating appropriate steps to nab the culprit under the provisions of law applicable, as this mishap has to be nipped it in bud.

This is the danger in utilising technology beyond the required level.

Yours Comradely,
sd/-
S.NAGARAJAN.
GENERAL SECRETARY

Source: http://www.aiboa.org

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“It has been decided to call upon all our Officers not to attend/respond to the ‘official’ SMS/WhatsApp messages, received from their Controlling Authority/Zonal Heads between 8pm and 8am”

JOINT APPEAL TO ALL MEMBERS FROM FOUR OFFICERS’ ORGANISATIONS ON WORK – LIFE BALANCE

ALL INDIA BANK OFFICERS’ CONFEDERATION (AIBOC)
ALL INDIA BANK OFFICERS’ ASSOCIATION (AIBOA)
INDIAN NATIONAL BANK OFFICERS’ CONGRESS (INBOC)
NATIONAL ORGANISATION OF BANK OFFICERS (NOBO)

Date: 29th September, 2018

To
All Affiliates (For Circulation)

To
All Affiliates of AIBOC/AIBOA/INBOC/NOBO

Dear Comrades,

Observe Work-Life-Balance, in letter and spirit

You are aware that the officers fraternity has been subjected to enormous stress due to ever increasing workload, inadequate staff, continuous pressure from multifarious controllers, over-ambitious targets, mis-placed business priorities, extended working hours et al. This has taken a heavy toll on the efficiency level and is the root cause of frustration and anxiety disorder resulting in depression, helplessness and life-style diseases viz Diabetes, High BP and Cardiac problems etc. Officers are constantly receiving SMS and instructions over WhatsApp messages even at odd hours. This has adversely affected their social and family life. Banking system has forgotten that an Officer is just not an employee of the Bank, but also a spouse/son/father/mother and an integral part of society. This situation has become intolerable as we find Officers are virtually chained to their official duties and have no respite, even while at home.

Work-Life-Balance is the need of the hour. Many top global companies are addressing this sensitive issue through various measures. State Bank of India has issued a comprehensive instruction addressing the need for a Work-life balance. However, the ground reality almost in every institution is that majority of the officers are stressed and do not have a work-life balance, which is attributed specially to the instructions received through SMS and WhatsApp.

All four officers organisations have unanimously decided to address this menace. It has been decided to call upon all our Officers not to attend/respond to the ‘official’ SMS/WhatsApp messages, received from their Controlling Authority/Zonal Heads between 8pm and 8am.

We urge upon our members to respond to our clarion call and implement the instructions in letter and spirit forthwith.

Yours comradely,

General Secretary – AIBOC
General Secretary – AIBOA
General Secretary – INBOC
General Secretary – NOBO

Source: http://aisbof.org

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New Delhi: A section of bank trade unions have threatened to go on a day-long nation-wide strike on February 7 to press various demands including complete removal of restrictions imposed during demonetisation period and safeguarding the autonomy of the Reserve Bank of India.

“It was expected that the government and the RBI would take necessary steps to mitigate the problems faced by the banks and the public but even now, we find that there is acute shortage of cash supply to the banks with the result that branches are not able to honour even the restricted payment of Rs 24,000/100,000 per week,” AIBEA General Secretary C H Venkatachalam said.

Apart from All India Bank Employees’ Association( AIBEA), other unions which will be part of the strike are All India Bank Officers’ Association (AIBOA) and Bank Employees Federation of India.

Unions are also demanding publishing names of individuals who have defaulted in paying loans of Rs 1 crore and above so that stringent measures could be taken to recover bad loans.

Other demands of banks include ensuring autonomy of RBI in cash management, compensation to family of general public, bank customers and bank staff who lost their lives in the demonetisation aftermath and payment of overtime to employees and officers for their additional effort during the 50-day demonetisation period.

He added that the government is interfering by appointing officials to monitor cash management which is affecting the autonomy of RBI. Cash management falls under the sole jurisdiction of RBI, he said.

“Humiliated” by the events since demonetisation, even RBI employees had written to Governor Urjit Patel protesting the operational “mismanagement” of the note ban exercise and the government impinging the apex bank’s autonomy.

In a letter, the employees said that the autonomy and image of RBI has been “dented beyond repair” due to mismanagement and termed the appointment of a senior Finance Ministry official for currency coordination as a “blatant encroachment” of the RBI’s exclusive turf.

PTI

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AIBOA  Strike on 12th and 13th July 2016

AIBEA-AIBOA decide to plunge into immediate action to oppose attempts to denigrate Public Sector Banks and to protest against proposed merger and consolidation of Banks with a view to divert the people’s attention from the Himalayan bad loans in Banks .

In the name of banking sector reforms, the attempt is to privatise the Banks and hand them over to the private corporates to enable them to further loot the precious savings of the people.

Already our Banks are bleeding due to alarming increase in bad loans, thanks to the deliberate default by the corporates and big business enterprises. Instead of taking tough measures to book the culprits and recover the loans, efforts are taken to hand over the banks to very same defaulters.

It is very clear that all their talks of banking reforms and proposals of merger and consolidation are only a ploy and game plan to divert the attention of the people from the massive bad loans in the Banks.

Our country needs strong public sector banks and not necessarily big banks or global-sized banks. Our country needs banking expansion and not consolidation of banks and shrinkage of banking services to people.

The focus should be the alarming increase in bad loans to the tune of about R. 13 lac crores. The efforts should be to recover the money by taking stringent measures and not hush it up through provisions, write-offs, CDRs and SDRs.

If the loans have been sanctioned wrongly, action should be taken on the concerned Executives. If the borrower has cheated the Banks, criminal action should be taken against the defaulter.

Providing for the bad loans, clean-up of Balance Sheet and making the Banks to incur the losses is not the solution to the problem. It is obvious, all these are only diversionary tactics to escape from the accountability for the huge bad loans.

Kingfisher Mallya is only the tip of the iceberg. There are many more sharks in the ocean of bad loans in the Banks. Why the list of defaulters is not being published by them? Why criminal action is not taken on the willful corporate defaulters? Why all velvet treatment to them? Why the attempt to convert the bad loans as equity investment in these defaulter companies? Is it the corporate governance and good governance policy of the Government ?

In IDBI Bank, 10 years ago, about Rs.9000 crores of bad loans were taken out of their books. Now another Rs. 19,000 crores is the bad loan. Instead taking action to recover these bad loans, the Government wants to privatise and sell the Bank to the very same private sector which is responsible for these huge loan default in IDBI Bank.

Hence AIBEA and AIBOA have decided to plunge into immediate action to oppose attempts to denigrate Public Sector Banks and protest against proposed merger and consolidation of Banks with a view to divert the people’s attention from the Himalayan bad loans in Banks.

It is time to move, time to fight. We exhort all our units and members to carry out the programme successfully and make the strikes a total success.

With greetings,
Yours comradely,
S. NAGARAJAN
GENERAL SECRETARY
AIBOA

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