LIC’s initial public offering (IPO) is likely after October this year, a top official said on Tuesday, laying out the government’s divestment calendar that includes completing the sale of flag carrier Air India and oil firm BPCL within the first half of the next fiscal.
Targeting to raise Rs 1.75 lakh crore from the asset sale to finance projects aimed at reviving the pandemic-battered economy, the government is also looking to sell Shipping Corporation of India (SCI), IDBI Bank and two other public sector lenders in the financial year beginning April 1.
Tuhin Kanta Pandey, secretary in the department of investment and public asset management, said the government has introduced the legislative amendments required for disinvestment of a stake in Life Insurance Corporation of India and IDBI Bank through the Finance Bill, 2021 presented on Monday.
The Modi government is targeting record capital expenditure next fiscal to pull the economy out of the trough.
Additional resources required for that are to be raised through divestment and monetisation. It has already received the preliminary expression of interest for the sale of stake in BPCL and Air India while the same for SCI is due on February 13.
