Employees of the public sector insurance companies, affiliated to Insurance Corporation Employees’ Union (ICEU), met C. Sivasami, MP, seeking his support to oppose the proposed Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill in the winter session of Parliament.
“We are against the amendments planned because it is aimed at increasing the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) cap from 26 per cent to 49 per cent in the insurance sector,” said Sanjai Raja, president of ICEU’s Tirupur unit.
The insurance sector staff told Mr. Sivasami that the foreign capital sees India as a potential destination and wanted to take control of the massive domestic savings only because of the fact that the outlook for growth of insurance industry in developed nations had turned negative.
“By allowing the FDI in insurance sector, the country is not going to gain anything which is evident from the fact that the foreign companies did not bring even a small portion of their global premium funds into India in the last 13 years,” Mr. Raja said.
“Whereas Life Insurance Corporation of India contributed Rs. 7.04 lakh crores to the 11th Five Year Plan.
“The company had paid a dividend of Rs. 1,279 crore to the government during the last fiscal alone against a meagre capital of Rs. 5 crore invested by the government in LIC.
“In this scenario, the MPs should oppose the proposed amendments to the Bill and save the domestic insurance sector,” the employees told Mr. Sivasami.
