Insurance Amendment Bill panel likely to be reconstituted

The select panel on Insurance (Amendment) Bill is likely to be reconstituted. Earlier, the panel included two BJP members namely JP Nadda and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi who will have to be replaced as they have now been inducted as ministers.The new panel will be reconstituted when the Parliament reconvenes around November 24. However, this is a bill that has been going back and forth since 1997. There are 15 member of that committee of which two will now be replaced.Sources say that 49 percent FDI in Insurance is not an issue per se; majority of the committee, which is at least 8 members out of the 15 support the hike in FDI from 26 percent to 49 percent but the members of Left Party and the Trinamool Congress Derek O'Brien continue to oppose these hike in FDI. However, it seems to be more of an ideological issue than an issue with that particular clause.In fact some of the other members of the committee are also in favour of the government amending clauses which pertain to ownership and control because they believe that if a foreign investor can have 49 percent and bring in FDI then why should the Indian promoter exercise control, why shouldn’t the foreigner be able to exercise control and create two different class of investors? This is one of the proposals that some members of the committee are pushing because believe the current clause is retrograde. However, it will depend on what the majority view is likely to be and there may be some dissenting voices or at least dissenting notes as far as the ownership and control issue are concerned.What happens to the insurance bill? Sources say finance minister thinks the bill will go through the winter session of parliament. Although the Congress is onboard at this point in time, it is a political decision and should the Congress does not support it in this session then one doesn’t know what will happen to the bill. However, at this point in time it seems like this bill will perhaps go through. Majority view of the select panel on insurance is to hike the FDI cap but end game remains a political one.