Page 9 - Insurance Times September 2019

LIC of India

News

LIC launches Jeevan Telangana extends Rythu Bima, to pay LIC enhanced
Amar plan premium
Rythu Bima, a life insurance scheme for farmers, has been extended by the
LIC has launched a new term-insur-
Telangana government for one more year. It will
ance plan called Jeevan
pay Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) Rs 934 crore
Amar. It is a non-
as premium for Rs. 5-lakh cover to 31 lakh farm-
linked, without
profit, pure ers.
protection LIC has asked the state government for a hike in
plan, and is the premium to Rs. 3,013 per farmer, an increase of about 55% over last year's
available for sale offline. It offers the premium per head.
flexibility to choose from two death The insurance scheme, which is being offered to farmers in the age group of
benefit options - level sum assured 18-59, was launched last year. The relatives of about 15,000 farmers, who died
and increasing sum assured. The during the past one year, received about Rs. 750 crore. Around 31 lakh farm-
minimum sum assured under the ers have joined the scheme.
plan is Rs. 25 lakh with no maximum
Taking the high mortality rate and the cost of implementation under consider-
limit.
ation, LIC wanted the government to revise the premium. Since the scheme
has ended on August 14, the Department of Agriculture had sent a proposal
LIC's stake in Hindalco in-
to the state government asking it to extend the scheme for one more year.
creased to 10.39% The government issued an order sanctioning the premium amount to be paid
Shares of Hindalco may remain in fo- to LIC. The premium for the year beginning August 14 is put at Rs. 3,013.50
cus as Life In- per farmer. This would attract a GST of Rs. 542.50 and a stamp duty of Rs. 30.94
surance Cor- crore.
poration of
India (LIC) UCO approaches LIC for capital-raising
has in-
creased its The LIC could play a major part UCO Bank's capital-raising plan in FY19. The
stake in the company. In a notice to MD and CEO of the bank Atul Kumar Goel said that
the bank has approached LIC for additional capital,
bourses, Hindalco said LIC has ac-
having already raised around Rs 500 crore as Basel-III
quired 4.65 crore shares of the com-
compliant tier-II bonds.
pany through open market transac-
tions between May 5, 2017 and Au- The bank envisages a capital requirement of Rs 4,500-
gust 14, 2019. Following the acquisi- 5,000 crore in 2019-20. While the bank will primarily look at capital from the
tion, LIC's stake in Hindalco increased government, there are two concerns.
to 10.39% from 8.32%. At the end of Firstly, the Centre holds 92.52% in the bank as on June 30, 2019, while public
June, LIC had a stake of 9.26% in shareholding is only 7.48%. Secondly, the current volatility could make it diffi-
Hindalco, exchanges data show. cult for the bank to tap the capital market.
The Insurance Times, September 2019 9