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Govt moves key Bills on insurance divestment, NCR pollution in Lok Sabha
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman tabled The General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Amendment Bill, 2021. The government also tabled The Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas Bill, 2021
The government introduced two key Bills in Lok Sabha Friday, one aimed at divestment of the insurance sector and the other to fight pollution in the national capital region, amid protests by Opposition members on various issues.
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman tabled The General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Amendment Bill, 2021. The government also tabled The Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas Bill, 2021, following which the Speaker adjourned Lok Sabha for the day due to the pandemonium.
The insurance-sector Bill is widely seen as a move to privatise state-run insurance companies, following the finance minister’s budget 2021-22 announcement.
While presenting the budget 2021-22, the finance minister had said: “We propose to take up the privatisation of two public sector banks and one general insurance company in the year 2021-22. This would require legislative amendments and I propose to introduce the amendments in this session (budget) itself.” The Bill however was not introduced in the budget session held in February.
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The amendments to the parent Act, The General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Act, 1972 had been approved by the Modi Cabinet on Wednesday.
The insurance amendment Bill is part of a larger divestment target of the government as the Modi government plans to sell stakes in five state-run corporations and speed up its privatisation agenda to draw in foreign investment in a Covid-hit economy.
The government hopes to achieve its planned divestment target of ₹1.75 lakh crore for 2021-22 despite hurdles posed by the pandemic.
A panel headed by the finance minister had cleared disinvestment and stake reduction of the country’s largest insurer LIC, the first step towards the finalisation of the Bill. The government has also cleared listing of the insurer on equity markets and initial public offerings (IPO), which refers to offering of shares of a company on the stock market to investors.
As the Bill was moved, N K Premachandran, a lawmaker from the Opposition Revolutionary Socialst Party, opposed its tabling. “The House is not in order. I strongly oppose the Bill since it is a Bill to privatise insurance.”
The finance minister said: “It is not to privatise, we are certainly bringing some enabling provision so that citizens can have some participation. Our market can give the money from retail funds, through Indian citizens. It can enable faster growth for such insurance companies. The public participation is only going to help us by bringing more resources.”
The second Bill, The Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas Bill, 2021, if passed, will see the creation of a statutory panel to monitor and mitigate pollution in greater Delhi for the first time.
Farm unions have opposed an earlier ordinance to install a commission to penalise polluters. Stubble-burning, or the practice by farmers to burn paddy remnants, is a cause of deadly winter pollution in northern Indian states, including Delhi.
Farmers in food-bowl states of Punjab and Haryana find it cheaper to clear paddy fields after harvest by setting them on fires, claiming they can’t afford costly farm equipment that can do the job without causing pollution.
“Opposing such a Bill is one of the reasons why we are protesting. The government should offer a subsidy for us to stop stubble-burning. Farmers don’t have an option,” said Gurnam Singh Chaduni, a farm union leader currently leading protests against three recent agricultural laws.
