No proposal to merge public sector general insurance companies: Govt

The government on Monday said there is no proposal under consideration for merger of public sector general insurance companies.

In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said Rs 17,450 crore was infused during 2019-20 to 2021-22 in three PSU general insurance companies namely Oriental Insurance, National Insurance and United India Insurance to focus on their growth.

"There is no proposal under consideration of government at present for merger of public sector general insurance companies," Chaudhary said.

In the Budget for 2018-19, the then finance minister Arun Jaitley had announced that the three companies would be merged into a single insurance entity.

However, the merger process could not be completed due to various reasons, including poor financial health of these companies.

In reply to another question on non-performing assets in the MSME sector, Chaudhary said the total credit outstanding of Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) to the sector as on March 31, 2024 is Rs 28.04 lakh crore of which non-performing assets is Rs 1.25 lakh crore.

The gross NPA percentage of SCBs for the MSME sector is 4.46 per cent as against 2.74 per cent for total loans and advances, he added.