The cabinet has approved the hike of foreign direct investment limit to 49 percent in insurance sector from the prevailing 26 percent. The government has cleared that it would take up the Insurance Amendment Bill as soon as possible in the Parliament. The bill is likely to pass easily in Parliament as the country’s second largest party, Congress, has indicated that it will support the bill. The Insurance Amendment Bill, which has been pending in the Parliament since 2008, proposed to enhance FDI limit to 49% with full management and control through Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) route.
Presently, most of the insurance companies particularly private players are facing severe shortage of funds. If the bill gets passed in parliament, most of the insurance companies, barring the public sector insurance companies, would benefit from higher FDI cap.
An increase in the ceiling for the insurance sector will automatically translate into a similar limit for the pension business. The government expects inflows of $6-7 billion into the pension and insurance sectors, which in turn will also generate long-term funds to finance infrastructure projects as individuals invest in insurance and pension schemes with a 20-30 year horizon. Accordingly, same investment is further invested in long-term instruments such as government securities and corporate bonds with a small portion also flowing into the stock markets.
The insurance sector was opened up to the private sector in 2000. Since then, the number of private players in the insurance sector has gone up from seven to 53 as on March 31, 2014, operating in the life, non-life, and re-insurance segments.
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