Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 8: As per the joint call of Federation of Class-1 Officers’ Association, National Federation of Insurance Field Workers of India (NFIFWI) and All India Insurance Employees’ Association (AIIEA), LIC employees of Jammu & Kashmir held massive demonstrations during lunch recess today in front of LIC offices to express their strong resentment against the proposals of the Union Budget 2021-2022 presented by the Union Finance Minister on February 1, 2021.
The unions were represented and led by Vijay Khajuria from class-1 Federation, Rakesh Magotra from NFIFWI and Pawan Gupta from Northern Zone Insurance Employees’ Association. The leaders said that the Union Budget announced by the Finance Minister on February 1, 2021 proposes to amend the Insurance Act 1938 to increase FDI in the insurance sector from 49% to 74% and allow foreign ownership in insurance with some safeguards. She announced her plans to privatise one general insurance company along with two public sector banks. She also declared that the Government would bring the LIC IPO in this Financial Year.
The Joint Front of unions in LIC is opposed to each of these proposals in the Union Budget. There is absolutely no justification for FDI hike in the Insurance industry. The actual share of FDI in the total investments in the private insurance industry today is much less than the current limit of 49%. Scarcity of Foreign capital has never been an impediment to the growth of the Insurance industry. FDI hike in insurance would only help foreign capital gain greater control over our precious domestic savings. It is important that in a developing economy like ours, the state exercises greater control over domestic savings. Allowing foreign capital greater control over domestic savings would surely harm the nation.
They further pointed out that the LIC IPO will certainly be a big blow to the very concept of “Atamnirbar Bharat.” LIC is an institution which does not create any profit for itself as it distributes the entire surplus generated to the Government and the policy holders. The LIC IPO will undermine the very objectives of its creation, rather than delivering value to the nation and its policyholders, it will be forced to work for creating value and generating profits for the shareholders. Therefore, the asset owned by all Indians will be exploited for profits by small number of rich in the country.
They further said that the wage revision of LIC employees has been due since August I, 2017 and there is no genuine response after the offer of 16 % was negated by the Joint Front nearly one month ago. This inordinate delay has caused a lot of resentment among employees.
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