The initial public offering (IPO) of Life Insurance Corporation Of India (LIC), could alone rope in Rs 1 lakh crore for government coffers.
The initial public offering (IPO) of Life Insurance Corporation Of India (LIC), could alone rope in Rs 1 lakh crore for government coffers in the coming financial year, Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) K V Subramanian said today. He added that another Rs 75,000-80,000 crore could be made by privatising state-owned BPCL. The CEA’s comments came as he dubbed the Rs 1.75 lakh crore disinvestment target set by the Finance Minister for the next fiscal year as “imminently achievable”.
The central government has set Rs 1.75 lakh crore disinvestment target for the next fiscal year after having failed to come close to its target for the current year. K V Subramanian said that the next year’s target of Rs 1.75 lakh crore is a carry-over of the Rs 2.10 lakh crore target set for the current fiscal ending March 31. “Of this, BPCL privatisation and LIC listing itself were important contributors. There are estimates suggesting Rs 75,000-80,000 crore or even higher can just come from the privatisation of BPCL itself. LIC IPO could bring in Rs 1 lakh crore approximately,” PTI quoted Subramanian saying.
Paving the way for the much-awaited LIC IPO, the government amended the LIC Act and passed the Finance Bill 2021 in Parliament earlier this week.
In BPCL, the government is looking to offload its 51.98% stake in the petroleum refinery. PTI reported that Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta Group and private equity firms Apollo Global and I Squared Capital’s Indian unit Think Gas have already put in an expression of interest for buying the government’s stake in BPCL.
The CEA said that the disinvestment target is achievable as the government has begun working on the targets already.
Speaking at a virtual conference by Jana Small Finance Bank, K V Subramanian further stressed the need for banks and the crucial role they would play in India’s growth trajectory going forward. On the long-term growth story of India, he said the economy is expected to record double-digit growth next financial year.
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