Part LIC sale to help Centre meet ambitious disinvestment target

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 27

Though the Government seems to have put off the privatisation of two public sector banks, its disinvestment target of Rs 175 lakh-crore for the current fiscal appears to be on track.

The evaluation of Life Insurance Corporation is over and it is in a position to offload a fraction of its equity on the market, said sources. The government owns 100 per cent stake in LIC and its embedded value (EV), the basis on which insurance companies are evaluated, is estimated at $150 billion.

The Government also intends disposing off Nilachal Ispat, Pawan Hans, Bharat Earth Movers and Shipping Corporation within the current fiscal with sources indicating that the stage for financial evaluation of the offers will be reached soon.

That two public sector banks will not be privatised was clear after the Government did not present a bill to amend the requisite laws in the recently-concluded Winter Session of Parliament. But the Government has been forthright, right after the economy recovered from the devastating second wave in June, that the major chunk of the disinvestment collections will come from the LIC.

The government early gave an extension to LIC Chairman M R Kumar till March 2022 to ensure continuity in preparing the PSU behemoth for a stake sale. The government has also increased LIC’s authorised capital to Rs 25,000 crore from Rs 100 crore. LIC has an asset base of Rs 32 lakh-crore with 29 crore policy holders.