Moving Ahead With Insurance PSU Privatisation, Central Govt Readies Amendment To GIBNA; Bill Likely In Monsoon Session

The central government is working towards amending the General Insurance Business (Nationalization) Act (GIBNA) and also a bill that will be presented in the forthcoming monsoon session of the Parliament to expedite the privatisation of a public sector general insurance firm.

GIBNA was enacted in 1972 and lays the provisions for acquiring and transferring shares of Indian insurance companies and also undertakings of other existing insurers. The amendments to the act might be put forth in the upcoming session in order to privatise a general insurer as envisioned in Union Budget 2021.

The central government has targeted pocketing a mammoth Rs 1.75 lakh crore through disinvestment that will be realized via stake sales in public sector companies and financial institutions in the ongoing financial year.

Particularly, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had declared that the government will be privatizing two public sector banks and a general insurance company in the current fiscal.

Meanwhile, amendments will also be made to the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1980 and the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1970 to facilitate the privatization of the concerned PSBs.

In addition to that, the proposed initial public offering (IPO) of the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) and stake sale in the IDBI Bank are also parts of the government’s proposed disinvestment plans for FY 21-22, Business Standard reports.