FDI Policy Might Revised to Facilitate LIC IPO

As per the market speculations, the Indian government is working towards a simplified FDI policy to float LIC initial public offerings as the DPIIT secretary Anurag Jain said on Thursday. The final decision will be taken by the Cabinet.

Anurag Jain, a secretary in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), said “We are working on further simplification of the FDI policy. A very important point for further simplification is required urgently, as we have to do the LIC disinvestment. So, we would be coming out with a revised FDI policy which will facilitate LIC disinvestment,”

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As per the extant FDI policy allows up to 74% of foreign investment under the automatic route in insurance but it does not apply to LIC. As per the SEBI rules FPI and FDI are permitted under public offering but as per the LIC Act, there is no provision for foreign investment. The DPIIT is in talks with DFS & DIPAM for this.

Anurag Jain said, “We have had two rounds of discussions at my level and now, we have (DPIIT, DFS and DIPAM) come on the same page. So, we are in the process of drafting those changes in the FDI policy. We will go to the Cabinet (for approval).”

As per the last thing heard about LIC IPO in July 2021, the LIC IPO proposal was approved by the Cabinet, and the Government of India is planning to launch in the current quarter, still, there is no official confirmation.