IPO will make LIC disinvestment more transparent: Nirmala Sitharaman

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said that the Centre is planning to bring an Initial public offering (IPO) for the disinvestment of the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India.

"At the moment for LIC, we are looking at an IPO. An IPO will bring in retail investors into the picture and also make the issue more transparent for everybody," Sitharaman said at a press conference here.

The Finance Minister further said that the central government was seeking ways to decriminalise the tax laws in the country.

"We wish to decriminalise laws, we started it off with Companies Act earlier and now we are also looking at the Income Tax Act, in this regard. We want to make it so that for civil offences the punishment is not for criminal offences," Sitharaman said at a press conference in Mumbai on Friday.

In the press conference, the Finance Minister thanked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for supporting the Centre's initiative to boost the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector.

"Glad that RBI has been dynamic enough to support the Government's initiatives for strengthening the MSME sector," Sitharaman said.

She added that a similar press conference will be held in Chennai tomorrow, followed by one in Kolkata on Sunday.