The process of listing of four public sector general insurance companies will begin one by one and "lot of action" is expected on the front in next few months, a top official said today.
"In the last Budget, government has announced listing of various public sector insurance companies and that is work in progress.
"We expect that the process of listing of the insurance companies will begin one-by-one. Modalities are being worked out and I think we should see lot of action on that front in the next few months," Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das said at the Economic Times 'BFSI Best Brands' Summit.
In his Budget speech, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had proposed listing of four wholly-owned PSU general insurance companies. The four companies are New India Assurance Company, National Insurance Company, Oriental Insurance Company, United India Insurance Company.
Insurance sector regulator IRDAI yesterday released draft guidelines for Indian listed insurance companies. As of now, no insurer, either private or state-owned are listed. However, several of them shown intent to tap the IPO route and get listed.
Commenting on the narrowing down Current Account Deficit (CAD) numbers, released by RBI this evening, Das said it is a "significant" achievement over the previous year.
"If you see this figure (of CAD) along with fiscal deficit, revenue deficit figures and all the other macro-economic parameters that we have, contextually we can say that Indian economy is doing well. The fundamentals are robust, especially when we have strong global headwinds," he said.
He said India should consolidate on its fundamentals to achieve much higher growth.
"7.6 per cent growth in the last year is not enough...I am sure we can do better," Das said.
Das said with good monsoon rains, passage of GST
constitution amendment bill and cumulative impact of recent economic reforms, "this year we can look at 8 per cent growth".
Talking about the various steps taken by the government, Das said the new law on bankruptcy is a "game changing legislation" and the true impact of the law will be seen when it is implemented.
The Secretary said that government is also working on a comprehensive code for resolution of stressed situation in financial sectors.
"The law is in drafting stage and we are trying our best and we hope to introduce this law in the forthcoming Monsoon session of Parliament," he said.
The bankruptcy law deals with corporates, LLPs and partnership firms. It does not deal with distress situation in financial firms.
Speaking at the occasion, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said the "basic principle" of the state government is intent should be clear behind all policies and decisions.
Quoting Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, he said the government's job is not do business, but to make doing business easy and "we are working on this principle". He also said effort is also on to check leakages in taxes by using technology and public participation. He said several innovative steps have been taken in that direction.
Referring to programmes like Skill India and Digital India, Sisodia called upon the banks to support innovative ideas of youngsters and hand-hold them to become entrepreneurs.
Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said the key challenge before India is to rapidly expand its infrastructure.
