Government is planning to complete LIC’s initial public offering (IPO) in the current financial year. Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary announced this in the Lok Sabha on July 19.

Earlier, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Union Budget 2021 speech had mentioned that the IPO of LIC would be completed in 2021-22.

The Minister of State for Finance was replying to a query related to LIC IPO during the first day of the monsoon session of the Parliament. In this matter related to LIC IPO, works on the different front is being carried on. Only recently on July 15, Secretary, DIPAM (Department of Investment and Public Asset Management) issued RFP for selecting Book Running Lead Managers and other advisers for LIC IPO.

The biggest IPO in the history of India, LIC IPO will also see 10 per cent stake reserved for policyholders. In this direction, LIC has already started creating a database of eligible policyholders. This has been initiated keeping in mind that the LIC has 29 crore policyholders and many people hold more than one policy and the process is expected to consume time.

Given that the Life Insurance Cooperation is the biggest insurance company in the country and it is reserving 10 per cent quota for policyholders, it is expected that LIC IPO may lead to the opening of more than 1 crore Demat account. The listing of LIC will be crucial for the government to meet its disinvestment target.

Inviting bids from merchant bankers, the Finance Ministry had said the potential size of the IPO is expected to be far larger than any previous issue. The Budget Estimate for disinvestment in 2021-22 has been set at Rs 1.75 lakh crore. So far this fiscal, Rs 7,645.70 crore has been realised as disinvestment receipts.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget speech had said that strategic disinvestment of BPCL, Air India, Shipping Corporation of India, Container Corporation of India, IDBI Bank, BEML, Pawan Hans, Neelachal Ispat Nigam Ltd, among others.