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| Life Insurance Company employees oppose IPO | | |  Early Times Report
JAMMU, July 23: LIC Employees under the banner of Northern Zone Insurance Employees' Association Srinagar Division as per the call of All India Insurance Employees' Association held massive demonstrations today on 23RD July 2021 in front of LIC offices of Jammu & Kashmir against IPO in LIC.
The demonstration in Jammu region was led by Com. Pawan Gupta, Divisional Secretary NZIEA Srinagar Division; and in valley region, was led by Com. A.M.Tantray, Divisional President, and Com. Ajaz Ahmad Dar, Joint Secretary, Fyaz Gul, Vice President, Amarjeet Singh, Syed Aadil Imam, Bashir Ahmad, Abdul Majid Sheikh and Parvaiz Ahmad.
Speaking on the occasion, Com. Pawan Gupta lambasted on the NDA Government for its anti workers policies and for wholesale privatization of the public sector. He strongly opposed the move to privatize LIC of India by bringing IPO in LIC.He said that the Government of India is undergoing the process of divesting a portion of its holding in LIC, the biggest and finest public financial institution of the country.
The Government intends to raise around Rs 1 lakh crore by selling between 5 to 10 percent of its stake, which may go up to 25 percent. The arguments advanced by the government that listing of LIC will make its working more transparent; policyholders and small Investors would be benefitted are totally unconvincing. It is the sheer desperation for resources that is driving the government to sell the LIC.
The Government nationalized the life insurance business to protect the Policyholders from huge frauds perpetrated on them and to take control over the small savings for national development. In the last 64 years, LIC has justified the trust reposed in it by the Parliament and the people of this country. It not only gave total security to the policy monies and decent returns to the policyholders, it also emerged as the single biggest contributor to the national development.
In a country where vast majority of the citizens struggle for daily existence, LIC has been successful in spreading the message of insurance to the remotest parts of the country. With an individual policyholder base of nearly 30 crore and another 12 crore through group schemes, the LIC today is the biggest life insurer in the world in terms of client base and the number of claims it settles. Today LIC is the most visible and valuable brand in the country and is acknowledged as an institution which has wiped the tears of millions of tragedy-stricken families.
The decision to partly privatize LIC is an integral part of neoliberal agenda. Under neo-liberalism, these foundational principles of the constitution have been attacked and subverted as a result today India has the dubious record of the highest concentration of wealth in the world making it one of the most unequal societies.
The government is also abdicating its responsibilities as a provider of basic services to its citizens. The privatization the public sector and more so LIC which has-been a prime source for national development, is in clear violation of the Constitution. The decision to divest LIC shares raises many legal and ethical questions. The Government investment in LIC was a meager Rs 5 crore till 2011 when it was raised to Rs.100 crore to meet the regulatory norms. The government did not make any additional capital infusion to meet the cost of expansion nor did it infuse capital to meet the solvency requirement, the press release reads.
The LIC grew into a gigantic financial institution through generation of internal resources and the solvency margins are also maintained through the policyholders 'funds. Therefore in real sense LIC is a mutual benefit society with the government acting as a trustee at best with its stake limited to 5% of the surplus generated every year. The government as its share of surplus has already taken from LIC over Rs.26000 crore on its initial investment of Rs.5crore. It is the policyholders who own the value generated by LIC in the last 64 years and 95 percent of surplus goes to the policyholders; so the real owner is Policyholders of LIC; AND HOW CAN YOU PRIVATISE LIC without any discussion with them.
Therefore, the decision to sell LIC shares and appropriating it to meet the fiscal needs of the government is both ethically and legally wrong. The LIC has been built on the sweat and toil of its workforce including its large agency force. It has emerged as the most trusted brand due to confidence reposed in it by the nation. It is unfortunate that the government did not think it proper to discuss this vital issue with the employees' organizations. The privatization of LIC is more a political rather than an economic decision.
Others who spoke include Com. Romesh Chand,Joint Secretary, Com. Dinesh Kumar Sharma, Vice President, Co. Raj Kumar Sharma ,Treasurer, Smt. Neelam Sharma women convener, and, Kishore Lal,Rajesh Kumar, Raj Kumar, Alkiya Sharma,Priya Sharma, The demonstration was led by Com. Rajesh Gupta at Jammu-1, Com. Sham Sunder and R.P.Singh at Jammu-2, Vijay Verma at Kathua, Kuldeep Singh at Samba, Rajesh Sapolia at R.S.Pura, Moti Ram and Sham Singh at Udhampur, Ram Raj at Doda, Raj Kumar at Poonch and Khaliq Hussain and Vinod Sharma at Rajouri. |
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