Government ducks LIC disinvestment question

Finance Secretary Rajeev Kumar on Saturday ducked the question on the government's plans of disinvestment of the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), a fully government-owned entity, announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the budget presented to the Lok Sabha.

At an official press conference after the budget presentation, she tried to skip a question, saying "we are working on what percentage of listing will be done."

Nor did the finance secretary assisting her gave any clarity. He said the finance ministry is in talks with the law ministry for the legislative changes needed to facilitate the LIC listing. "We have started talks on the legislative changes for the LIC IPO (Initial Public Offer)," he said in the postbudget media interaction.

Sitharaman had said in the Lok Sabha that "LIC will be listed as part of the government's disinvestment initiative." She stressed that the listing will bring in more financial discipline among the entities.

The LIC was created on September 1, 1956 by merging more than 245 insurance companies and provident societies. The LIC Act for the purpose

was passed by Parliament in June that year.

Today, LIC is the largest life insurer in the country with total investment assets of Rs 31 lakh crore as on September 30, LIC's surplus for 2018-19 increased 9.9 per cent to Rs 532.14 billion. The company paid a dividend of Rs 26.11 billion to the government for 2018-19.