The Finance Ministry will infuse Rs 3,000 crore capital into state-owned general insurance companies during the current quarter in a bid to improve their financial health.
Last year, the Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi cleared a proposal to provide capital support to National Insurance, Oriental Insurance and United India Insurance. The cabinet had also decided to increase the authorised share capital of National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) to Rs 7,500 crore and that of United India Insurance Company Limited (UIICL) and Oriental Insurance Company Limited (OICL) to Rs 5,000 crore each to give effect to the capital infusion decision.
Recently, the government sought Parliament nod for gross additional expenditure of Rs 6.28 lakh crore for 2020-21 as part of a second and final batch of supplementary demands for grants. This included Rs 3,000 crore for providing additional funds towards recapitalisation of insurance companies.
The infusion will be done after the supplementary demands for grants is passed by Parliament which will reconvene on March 8. The capital infusion will enable the three public sector general insurance companies to improve their financial and solvency position, meet the insurance needs of the economy, absorb changes and enhance the capacity to raise resources and improve risk management.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Budget announced the privatization of two public sector banks and one general insurance company in 2021-22 beginning April. In 2017, state-owned companies New India Assurance Company and General Insurance Corporation of India went public.