Cong may oppose LIC listing if govt fails to convince:

Congress may oppose the proposal to list insurance behemoth Life Insurance Corporation of India if the Centre failed to convince it with rationale explanation for its move, senior party leader P Chidambaram said on Monday.

The LIC is profitable despite fierce competition from very large insurance companies of the world with deep pockets and it has also increased its first premium share last year by about five per cent, he said.

Presenting the 2020-21 budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday proposed to sell a part of government stake in LIC through an initial public offer next fiscal.

Participating in a Question and Answer session after his lecture on budget organised by the Southern India Chamber of Commerce and Industry here, Chidambaram, a former finance minister, said the LIC was doing well.

"They have to explain to us... why do you want to list LIC today. Is it because you think the management culture is bad ? the work culture is bad? Convince us," he said answering a query.

Further, he said: "But if the reason which the government gives is we have to collect money and therefore we want to disinvest, we will oppose it. That is a bad reason. You tell us good reasons why LIC should be listed."
Also, he said the if the government was able to convince the Congress party, "may be, we will be convinced. But at the moment we are sceptical."
On the budget proposal for abolition of Dividend Distribution Tax for companies, he said his personal view was that the "DDT is an efficient tax. There is no scope for evasion in DDT. Zero evasion... somehow it acquired a bad name."
"It is not easy to sell Air India. It has got too much baggage."
"Nine out of ten thought thali has become cheaper. That is not what the Chief Economic Adviser (Krishnamurthy V Subramanian) said. He said thali has become more affordable and it is very different from cheaper."