RS passes insurance Bill

Girja Shankar Kaura

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 12

Parliament today passed the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2015, which aims at increasing the cap on foreign direct investment (FDI) in the public sector insurance companies from 26 to 49 per cent, after the Rajya Sabha also cleared it late at night.

With the Congress members abstaining from the House, the Bill was finally passed despite the Left Parties, which have been opposing it, seeking division and voting on some of the amendments moved by them, which also got defeated with the treasury bench members present in full number.

The Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2015, which has already been passed by the Lok Sabha and seeks to replace an ordinance, was tabled in the upper house earlier in the day after short adjournments as some of the Opposition members objected to the government tabling a Bill which was an identical Bill that is pending with the House.

However, the House started the discussion on the Bill after Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien noted that there was no rule preventing the government from doing so.

Passage would represent a rare victory for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was elected last May on the promise of jobs and economic growth. His agenda has been stymied by clashes with the opposition, signalling how hard it will be to deliver on that mandate.

The opening of the insurance sector - which has languished in Parliament for more than six years - is one of a series of measures that Modi hopes will make it easier for overseas firms to bet on India’s growth story.

The Congress, which had brought the original Bill way back in 2008, indicated its support when its members abstained from the House at the time of voting.

The legislation would shake up India’s overcrowded life insurance sector, allowing global insurers such as Britain’s Prudential - which holds a minority stake in India’s biggest private life insurer ICICI Prudential Life - and others to increase their Indian stakes.

It could also pave the way for the year’s biggest initial public offering, as HDFC Life, a joint venture between India’s HDFC and Britain’s Standard Life, has said it would move towards a listing once the rule change is in place.

Earlier, as soon as the Bill was tabled, Communist Party of India-Marxist leader P Rajeeve said, “A select committee of the upper house has already given a report on an older version of the Bill and the new Bill that has been brought is identical in nature.”