A day before the mega LIC initial public offering listing, the Congress on Tuesday shredded the government as it asked four pointed questions, alleging that the “confidence and trust of 30 crore policy holders has been valued at throwaway prices”.
Congress’s Randeep Surjewala in a tweet on Tuesday targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and wrote: “Fire sale of India’s assets continues, as “ Jumlas of Tube light” are dished out in a season of total electricity failure! Is Modi Govt breaching the trust of 30 crore #LIC policyholders? (sic)”.
In its first question, the party asked: “Why was the LIC valuation of ₹12-14 lakh crore in February 2022 reduced to Rs. 6 Lakh Crore in just 2 months?” Since January, the share price band of LIC “has been pared down by (the) Modi government from ₹1,100 per share to the current price band of ₹902 – 949 per share,” the statement read, and added, “Some experts feel that the government will lose ₹30,000 crore by reduction in embedded Value and pairing down the price band.”
“Why did the Modi government suddenly reduce the ‘valuation of LIC’ and ‘Issue Size’ after roadshows in India and Abroad?” is the Congress’s second question. The ₹70,000 crore target was reduced to ₹21,000 crore after the government conducted roadshows for big ticket investors in February, it alleged.
The third question that the Congress’s Randeep Surjewala shared on Twitter was: “Is Modi government ignoring LIC’s key indices?”
And in the last question, a reference to the Ukraine war was made as an “exception to the LIC IPO policy was questioned, citing the Public Sector Divestment’s secretary-in-charge’s statement that the government won’t sell stakes in public sector units if the conditions were not favourable.
The insurance giant on Tuesday said it garnered a little over ₹5,627 crore from anchor investors led primarily by domestic institutions a day before, news agency reported.
In what has been said to be one of the biggest IPOs in the Indian market, the government aims to raise ₹21,000 crore by diluting 3.5 percent of stakes.
The IPO will be listed for public tomorrow.