Bengal FM urges Nirmala Sitharaman not to privatise public insurers

West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra wrote to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, urging her not to go ahead with the privatisation of public insurance companies. He said the move to privatise has brought a great sense of insecurity and distress among the people of the country. “May I express my shock and alarm at the policy decision of the Government of India venturing to privatise public sector insurance companies which are the pillars of the economy,” Mitra said in the letter.

The government plans to privatise public general insurer United India Insurance Company in the first instance as well as sell-off Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), considered to be the fulcrum of financial security for most of the Indians, he said. Privatisation of LIC, which has a massive quantum of investments in the economy running into Rs 36.76 lakh crore, will open up a ‘Pandora’s Box’ and throw into insecurity 30 crore policyholders, he said.

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The privatisation of United India Insurance will cause major disruption and destabilise the future of almost two crore retail insurers, Mitra added. The privatisation will initiate hydra-headed financial problems while undermining the confidence of the common retail insurers of the poorer sections of the society, he said.