SLIC taken off privatisation list

Legal and financial impediments mar the privatisation process

ISLAMABAD:

The Privatisation Commission (PC) Board on Friday approved the delisting of State Life Insurance Corporation (SLIC) from the ongoing privatisation programme-approved list of entities.

The SLIC will be included in the list again after all the issues facing the corporation are resolved.

A meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Privatisation, chaired by Senator Shamim Afridi on Friday, identified the legal and financial impediments in proceeding with the long-overdue privatisation of SLIC.

Privatisation Commission Secretary Hassan Nasir Jamy told the committee that despite frequent requests made by the PC to the commerce ministry to expedite the process and facilitate the requirements, the technical impediments remain unaddressed.

He informed the ordinance for the conversion of the corporation into a public limited company, introduced and passed in 2016, fell short of final implementation when the Senate Standing Committee on Commerce proposed a few amendments to it. The proposals were never taken into consideration by the commerce ministry, he added.

The Privatisation Commission lamented that it was crippled to do the transaction unless the ministry completes the corporatization process. Therefore, it had been deemed right the time being to de-list the SLIC from the privatisation programme.

While briefing on the structural aspects of the SLIC, officials from the corporation told the committee that SLIC was formed in 1972 after merging 36 companies. “SLIC has an investment income of Rs87 billion and the business has grown up by 60% in the first six months of this year compared to the same period last year,” they said, adding that the privatization process first began in 2016.

The representatives said SLIC currently had seven regional offices, 33 zonal offices, 166 sector offices and 1,242 area offices.

It was also informed that the life, group and health business lines have 2,352 officers, 2,284 staff, 1,243 area managers and 134,205 field forces.

The committee chairman proposed that the retired officers and officers re-inducted on extension should be removed to reduce the financial burden on the organisation. “By sacking those who are receiving double salaries, a considerable amount of burden could be taken off the company and can consequently avoid the privatisation,” the chairman noted.

The committee sought a briefing from the Ministry of Commerce on the matter summoned the Ministry of Law and Justice to brief on the legislation issue.