Govt may table insurance Bill this session

Notwithstanding the vehement opposition from the Left parties, the government is planning to table the Bill for comprehensive amendment of insurance laws, including raising the foreign direct investment ceiling from 26 per cent to 49 per cent.

The Bill will be tabled in the Rajya Sabha to ensure that it does not lapse even if the term of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government comes to an end.

The Left has already decided that it will try to block the introduction of the Bill. “We will oppose the Bill even at the introduction stage. We have been opposing it throughout the last four years when we supported this government. Because of our opposition, the government could not bring the Bill earlier. We continue to maintain our opposition to the Bill,” Sitaram Yehcury, CPI(M) leader in the Rajya Sabha, told Business Standard.

Even if the Bill is tabled, it will not be passed during the current session as almost all major parties would like to send it to a Parliamentary Standing Committee for its recommendations.

Apart from raising the foreign investment ceiling, another key amendment proposed is to give room to Indian promoters to continue to hold majority stakes in insurance companies. At present, the law requires Indian promoters to lower their stake to 26 per cent after the tenth year of operation.

Besides amending the Insurance Act, 1938, the Bill also proposes to amend the General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Act, 1972, and the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Act, 1999.

To enable state-run companies to raise more capital, the government will amend the General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Act to allow them to raise capital from market.

Meanwhile, the CPI(M) has demanded restoration of updated pension scheme for pre-1997 pensioners of the Reserve Bank of India, which has resulted in monthly reduction of pension by Rs 1,000- Rs 5,000. CPI (M) MP Basudeb Acharia raised the issue in the Lok Sabha recently, saying the central bank had unilaterally withdrawn the benefit to pensioners in October this year and there was a deep anguish among the staff of the RBI. “In protest against this unilateral decision, the RBI employees have observed mass casual leaves recently. I demand that the withdrawal notification should be kept in abeyance and the earlier pension scheme should be restored,” he said.