Budget 2016: Four state owned insurance companies to be listed, says Arun Jaitley

New Delhi: Presenting the Union budget for 2016-17, Arun Jaitley proposed to list the general insurance companies to give a boost to the initial public offering market and help it raise funds to meet its social sector and investment spending.

Also, they could hope to make profits since the pricing could be a lot more reasonable than the ones from private sector.

The four general insurance companies fully owned by government include New India Assurance, National Insurance, Oriental Insurance Company and United India Insurance.

As per the regulations laid down by Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority, insurance companies that have completed 10 years of operation could tap the capital market to raise capital.

However, as of now none of the private insurance companies are listed either. There are close to 22 life insurance and 20 general insurance companies.

Last year, the government allowed foreign partners to raise stake to insurance venture from 26 percent to 49 percent.