'Exposure to Adani much less than to other groups': Officials on LIC; question report timing

NEW DELHI: The section of fiscal services (DFS) successful the concern ministry and govt's argumentation deliberation vessel Niti Aayog person nary relation successful the concern decisions of LIC, and the concern guidelines of the state-owned institution are governed by board-approved policies, officials said connected Saturday, adding that the insurer's vulnerability to the Adani Group is acold little than to different conglomerates. LIC's concern successful the Tata Group is estimated astatine Rs 1.3 lakh crore, portion the vulnerability to the Aditya Birla Group is Rs 42,600 crore. On equity side, LIC owns 4% of Adani stocks (Rs 60,000 crore), compared with 6.9% (Rs 1.3 lakh crore) successful Reliance, 15.9% (Rs 82,800 crore) successful ITC, 4.9% (Rs 64,725 crore) successful HDFC Bank & 9.6% (Rs 79,361 crore) successful SBI, officials emphasised. Speaking connected information of anonymity, officials expressed suspicions astir the timing of the allegations levelled by Washington Post.

Coming astatine a clip erstwhile GST reforms person triggered record-breaking income successful the festive season, it could good person been timed to destabilise a robust economy. They rejected allegations levelled by Washington Post that govt officials had drafted plans to steer billions of dollars of LIC funds into Adani Group companies, adding that LIC is simply a listed institution and its investments are subjected to regulatory oversight of autarkic regulatory authorities specified arsenic banal marketplace regulator Sebi and security watchdog IRDAI.

They said LIC has been investing successful assorted companies and groups, and it is simply a regular process for specified a ample concern conglomerate. LIC, which is managing implicit Rs 55 lakh crore, invests successful equities and indebtedness instruments based connected the marketplace and involvement outlook, asset-liability absorption objectives, its money requirements and the wide nonsubjective of optimising returns for stakeholders. While LIC's yearly concern is astir Rs 5.5 lakh crore, investments mentioned successful the Washington Post study were little than 1% of the full yearly investment.

Arguing that this wasn't the archetypal lawsuit of the insurer being the sole bidder, officials said the nationalist assemblage behemoth participated successful online bids for the Rs 5,000 crore enslaved contented by Adani Ports and SEZ arsenic they enjoyed AAA rating, aft taking indispensable approvals.

It did not put successful bonds of Adani Green, they added. "LIC's investments travel the guidelines prescribed successful a precise transparent mode and are concurrently audited by autarkic auditors, reviewed by the committee arsenic good arsenic IRDAI, the regulator, and they are reported successful the mode required nether nationalist disclosure formats of IRDAI," said an official.