13-08-2021 | 15:44 PM
General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Amendment Bill, 2021
• The General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Amendment Bill, 2021 passed in Lok Sabha. The Bill seeks to amend the General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Act, 1972.
• The Act was enacted to nationalize all private companies undertaking general insurance business in India.
• The Bill seeks to provide for greater private sector participation in the public sector insurance companies regulated under the Act.
Key Highlights:
• The first aims to omit the provision to Section 10B of the Act so as to remove the requirement that the Central government holds not less than 51 percent of the equity capital in a specified insurer.
• The second amendment is to insert a new Section 24B, providing for cessation of application of the Act to such a specified insurer from the date on which the Centre ceases to have control over it.
• And, the third amendment is also to insert a new Section 31A, making a director, who is not a whole-time director, liable only for acts of omission or commission committed with his knowledge and connivance by the insurer.
• Although the Bill has a provision that will allow the government to bring down its shareholding below 51 percent, Sitharaman clarified that this is not a Bill for privatization.
