Vigilance Week observance in LIC of India

 Dear friends,

If anyone really deserves the award for hypocrisy, it has to be LIC of India! Its advertisement in The Times of India states proudly - Vigilant India. Prosperous India. The four things listed here are corruption, criminality, dishonesty and fraud.

I would like to draw the attention of the readers of this blog to the following facts brought out due to my RTI appeal for information from LIC of India:

LIC of India does not have information about 18 questions asked me out of my 21 questions posed to it, Even the three answered by them were incomplete and incorrect.

*LIC of India stated that the decision to repudiate arrears payment to us ex-employees who resigned before completion of 20 years of service, was taken by the Government of India.

This decision is actually taken by the Managing Board of Directors of the Corporation and the Government of India only ratifies it. (Of course, erroneously as it goes against the Supreme Court's judgment on this issue!)

I brought this fact to the notice of the Information Commissioner who agreed.

LIC of India is an autonomous body that takes its own decisions and reports them to the Government of India.

*LIC of India said that it doesn't have all the information that I asked for as the information is spread all over its offices and that I should approach each and every of the more than 2000 offices of the Corporation for my answers! Even the Information Commissioner sympathized with it and asked me to file separate appeals. 

I informed the Information Commissioner that LIC of India has all the details asked for me in its central server. It just doesn't want to divulge the information, hence is making this excuse of not having the requisite information at one place.

The height of making a false statement by the Corporation was that it didn't need these records as asked by me for its regular functioning and getting it and providing it to me would stress its resources! The Information Commissioner supported LIC's incorrect stand.

If the Corporation can ask me as an individual with meager resources; to make more than 2000 appeals and file court cases to get my dues, why can't it with so much man power at its disposal and as mandated by the RTI Act do the needful? Besides, it is lying through its teeth that it doesn't have the information. 

I will have to take 2000 and more rebirths to get answers from LIC of India to get all my answers at the rate at which LIC responds! 

It took 22 emails from me and later, an email that I would be sending a lawyer's notice that made LIC give a terse reply at last that I wouldn't be paid as per rules! 

Which rules was it talking about? The fraudulent Clause 3 1B that even the Supreme Court had long ago in 2007 struck down as ultra vires!

LIC of India has not accounted for the repudiated arrears' sums running into several crores of rupees in its Books of Accounts! What could be more fraudulent, dishonest, criminal and corrupt than this act?

If it had accounted for it, it would have divulged the information regarding number of employees who have been denied the payments and the total amounts repudiated till date from 1st August 1997.

The CPIO (Western Zonal Office) called me up from the Zonal Office's landline number and intimidated me and mockingly said that I wouldn't get any answers from LIC of India. I quote him "Asking for answers from LIC of India is like breaking your head against a brick wall. LIC will not answer any of your questions as it doesn't want to open Pandora's Box! You can file a case against the Corporation but even if you file a court case against LIC of India, you will lose the case. This RTI appeal of yours will be closed in a month!" 

He even asked me why I had asked the Information Commissioner to impose a penalty on him and LIC of India for not answering my queries within the stipulated time, as mandated by the RTI Act.

To say that his reprehensible statements were presumptuous and shocking, would be an understatement.

To add insult to injury, when I appraised the IC at the hearing about his remarks, he brazenly asked me "Have I ever spoken to you?" to which I immediately retorted, "You are lying".

The IC then asked him to be transparent in his dealings in future.

I wonder how the officials in the Managing Board of Directors of LIC of India even get sound sleep at night, after defrauding scores of resigning ex-employees of their hard-earned dues like arrears arising due to wage revision, difference in Statutory Retirement benefits like Provident Fund and Gratuity; despite the Supreme Court's verdict favoring such employees, in several cases? No prick of conscience?

Ironically, they will even take an oath of acting ethically, in their dealings as office-bearers of the Corporation, during the currently ongoing Vigilance Week! And keep including the illegal Clause in the Wage Revision Charter, every time that it is published; stipulating that such arrears are to be repudiated. By the way, this Clause was included in the 2010 and 2016 Wage Revision Charters, even after the 2007 judgement of the Supreme Court! And even approved by the Government of India!

A clear case of 'Contempt of Court'.

The Supreme court has ruled in its 2007 judgment that this offending Clause is "Ultra Vires" i.e. beyond the reach of power, of the Chairman of LIC of India.

May we persuade these officials to look up the dictionary for the equivalent of 'ethics'?

Even walk the talk? But probably that is too tall an order!

However, rest assured dear friends, the truth will ultimately prevail. We will definitely get our dues in the near future. Didn't India win her freedom after decades, nay, a century of struggle? Even if none of us is around, our descendants will reap the benefits of our crusade against LIC's injustice.

Satyameva Jayate!

Priya

Source:  http://www.rtifoundationofindia.com/information-respect-ex-employees-lic-who-were-deni

RTI Foundation of India

Information in respect of ex-employees of LIC who were denied salary arrears under wage revision Rule-2010 etc. was sought - CIC: Collating & compiling of information on all India basis would disproportionately divert the resources of the public authority 30 Apr, 2015 ORDER 1. The appellant, Shri Sunny Chhabra, submitted RTI application dated 12.10.2013 Central Public Information Officer (CPIO), LIC of India, New Delhi seeking information in respect of ex-employees of LIC of India who have been denied salary arrears under wage revision Rule-2010, among all those employees, how many employees were in the court against the order of denial and how many ex-employees have been reimbursed their claim after appeal in any court or by any other way. 2. The CPIO vide letter dated 21.10.2013 informed the appellant that no ex-employee of Northern Zonal Office had been denied salary arrears under Wage Revision 2010. The information relating to employees of LIC of India working in all India (under all the 2048 branches, 113 Divisions and other 7 Zonal Offices) was not available. Therefore, collecting and collating this information from all the CPIOs would divert the resources of the public authority and hence could not be provided as allowed u/s 7(9) of the RTI Act. Dissatisfied with the reply of the CPIO, the appellant preferred an appeal on 17.11.2013 before the FAA. The FAA vide his order dated 28.11.2013 concurred with the reply of the CPIO. 3. Thereafter the appellant filed second appeal before the Commission. 4. The matter was heard by the Commission. The appellant did not attend the hearing inspite of a written notice having been sent to him. The respondents stated that as per instructions for implementation of the LIC of India Development Officers (Revision of Terms and Conditions of Service) Amendment Rules, 2010 issued by LIC of India, Central Office, Mumbai dated 11.10.2010, the employees whose resignation had been accepted on or before the date of notification irrespective of whether they are relieved or not or whose services had been terminated under LIC of India during the period between 1.8.2007 and 8.10.2010 (both days inclusive) shall not be eligible for the arrears on account of this revision. They added that they had provided information about the Northern Zonal Office and collecting and collating information from 17 Divisions of Northern Zone, 113 Divisions all over the country will result in disproportionate diversion of resources, particularly when each division had its independent CPIO. 5. Having considered the submissions of the parties and on perusing the relevant documents on file, the Commission holds that information pertaining to LIC of India, Northern Zonal Office had been provided to the appellant. Collating and compiling of information pertaining to employees of LIC of India on all India basis would disproportionately divert the resources of the public authority and attract the provisions of Section 7(9) of the RTI Act. The appellant did not attend the hearing to point-out any deficiencies in the information provided by the respondents. The appeal is disposed of.   (Manjula Prasher) Information Commissioner Citation: Shri Sunny Chhabra v. LIC of India in Appeal: No. CIC/MP/A/2014/000433
                                         ************************************

I had a feeling of dejavu after reading this judgment by the same judge who had dismissed off my Second RTI Appeal on similar grounds even after I had pointed out that LIC of India has all information in its Central Office's server. It doesn't have to go anywhere to get any information. Only a click of the button would yield the answers that we appellants wanted.

 In vain!

It's appalling that LIC of India could get away so easily by misleading the Honorable Judge!

It would be interesting to note that all information is centralized in LIC of India through its highly efficient digital network. LIC is merely evading the questions as it has a lot to answer for!

This comment made to me by the Western Zonal Office's CPIO, is itself telling. He had phoned me from the Western Zonal Office, through its landline number. I quote him as follows:

"Madam, LIC will not answer any of your questions. Asking for answers from LIC is like banging your head against a brick wall. Your head will only break. LIC doesn't want to open a Pandora's Box by answering any of your questions. You will lose the case (RTI appeal) and this case will be closed within a month! You may approach the Courts for your dues but you will lose the case!"

He was disturbed and peeved that I had asked the Information commissioner to impose the mandatory fine on him and LIC of India for not giving replies to my RTI queries within the stipulated time, as per the RTI Act's rules.

When I confronted him during the videoconferencing session of the appeal's hearing, he blatantly lied that he had never spoken to me. I immediately retorted that he was lying. Then the Information Commissioner warned him to be transparent (honest) in his dealings in future.

So what can we expect from an organization that cheats its ex-employees of their hard-earned dues under false pretexts, arbitrarily, illegally and unjustly? Despite a Supreme Court's order declaring the said clause 3 1 B or ii) vide which repudiation has been effected, to be ultra vires!

Only the Government can intervene and help us to get back all our dues with interest.

Clean up LIC of India's Balance Sheet for its IPO!

 Source: https://www.hindustantimes.com/business-news/india-to-hire-deloitte-sbi-caps-to-help-lic-prepare-for-ipo/

India to hire Deloitte, SBI caps to help LIC prepare for IPO

The coronavirus pandemic has prompted the administration to boost market borrowing as revenue slumped following a nationwide lockdown.

BUSINESS Updated: Aug 22, 2020 09:59 IST

Bloomberg| Posted by Susmita Pakrasi

Bloomberg
The government will soon invite bids seeking firms to value LIC, the people said asking not to be identified citing rules on speaking to the media.(REUTERS)

India is poised to hire Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India Ltd. and SBI Capital Markets Ltd. to help Life Insurance Corp. of India prepare for an initial share sale, people with knowledge of the matter said.

The advisers will help evaluate the capital structure of India’s biggest insurer as well as aid the company in reworking its financial statement, according to a tender document issued in June. The government will soon invite bids seeking firms to value LIC, the people said asking not to be identified citing rules on speaking to the media.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is keen to go ahead with the initial public offering -- potentially India’s biggest -- to help plug a widening budget gap. The coronavirus pandemic has prompted the administration to boost market borrowing as revenue slumped following a nationwide lockdown.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Finance couldn’t immediately be reached outside business hours.

**********************************************************

In light of the above-mentioned report, we, the resigning ex-employees would like to appeal to the external auditors to examine whether LIC of India accounts for the amounts it repudiates in respect of the Wage Revision Arrears, as well as the difference in Statutory Retirement Benefits payable like Provident Fund and Gratuity; in its Balance Sheet; every time that a wage revision takes place in the Corporation. 

LIC of India repudiates these payments through insertion of a Clause 31B in the Wage Revision Charter. This clause has been declared to be 'Ultra vires' by the Supreme Court in its judgment in 2007, yet LIC of India, in gross CONTEMPT OF COURT, keeps including it in all its Wage Revision Charters!

An Accounts Officer in the Corporation had nonchalantly told me that since these amounts aren't payable, as per the Charter, they are not at all accounted for, in the Statements of Accounts of the Corporation! 

This is a clear case of omission and commission!

For LIC of India, it is a matter of 'Out of sight, out of mind and out of the Books of Accounts too!' as far as the resigning ex-employees are concerned!

This means that the repudiated amounts of several crores of rupees have conveniently been omitted in the Liabilities section of the Balance Sheet of the Corporation since 1st August, 1997, more than two decades, since when LIC of India has been illegally repudiating the arrears payments.

In effect, the Assets would appear to be wrongly inflated. This skewed Balance Sheet will not give a true picture of the finances of the Corporation, if provisions have not been made for these liabilities.

Interestingly, LIC of India didn't give me any information regarding the amounts repudiated or the number of employees who have been unjustly and illegally deprived of their dues; in response to my RTI appeal.

Had LIC of India accounted for it, it could have given me the information! 

A thorough investigation is needed before the IPO of LIC of India is announced.

The repudiated dues must be paid with interest to all of us at the earliest.

LIC of India commits the same blunder impudently defying Supreme Court judgments!

Arrears repudiated by LIC of India again, despite a Supreme Court judgment in 2007, declaring the said clause of repudiation to be 'ultra vires'!

Excerpt from the Gazette Notification

 MINISTRY OF FINANCE (Department of Financial Services) (INSURANCE DIVISION) NOTIFICATION New Delhi, the 14th January, 2016 G.S.R. 28(E).—

In exercise of the powers conferred by section 48 of the Life Insurance Corporation Act, 1956 (31 of 1956), the Central Government hereby makes the following rules further to amend the Life Insurance Corporation of India, Class I Officers (Revision of Terms and Conditions of Service) Rules, 1985, namely: ─ 1. (1) These rules may be called the Life Insurance Corporation of India, Class I Officers (Revision of Terms and Conditions of Service) Amendment Rules, 2016. (2) Save as otherwise provided in these rules, these rules shall be deemed to have come into force on the 1st day of August, 2012. (3) These rules shall be applicable to those Class I Officers who were in the whole-time salaried service in the permanent establishment of the Corporation on or after the 1st August, 2012: Provided that where any Class I Officer gives a notice in writing to the Corporation, within a period as specified by the Corporation, expressing his option to be governed by the provisions of these rules from a date not earlier than the date on which the said rules come into force and not later than the date of publication of this notification in the Official Gazette, then the Corporation may, by order, permit such Officer to be governed by the said rules with effect from the said date and no arrears for the period prior to the date so opted shall be payable to such officer: 6 THE GAZETTE OF INDIA : EXTRAORDINARY [PART II—SEC. 3(i)] Provided further that the officers whose resignations had been accepted or whose services had been terminated under rule 39 of Life Insurance Corporation of India (Staff) Rules, 1960 during the period from the 1st August, 2012 to the date of publication of this notification in the Official Gazette, shall not be eligible for the arrears on account of revision. 

************

Kindly note that the same clause was there in the Wage Revision Charter of 2010 also, wherein my arrears were illegally repudiated, along with that of scores of other resigning employees like me. In 2012, I had filed an RTI appeal against the Corporation. LIC of India has not given me the full statistics regarding number of ex-employees whose dues have been repudiated since 1997, amounts involved, etc. All the details of my RTI crusade are available on this blog.

Is the Finance Ministry and LIC of India in perpetual limbo? Don't they refer to the Supreme Court's judgments on this issue? Do they think that they are above the laws of this land?

I have been pointing out the Supreme Court's judgment in this blog since 2014! All the judgments on this issue are available easily on the internet. Both, LIC of India and the Government of India are tech-savvy, so it is impossible that they don't know about this judgment and its ramifications!

Is this the right way forward for DIGITAL INDIA? Or even for talented, hard-working and sincere employees like us; to be so unjustly deprived of our legally rightful, hard-earned dues?

Would the Honorable Prime Minister of India please intervene on our behalf and resolve this issue at the earliest, so that all of us long-suffering ex-employees could gracefully get our dues?

All of us would be highly obliged!

LIC of India is a trustee of policyholders' money, not its owner!

Source: https://www.newsclick.in/how-govt-milking-cash-cow-lic-endangering-indias-most-trusted-life-insurer

Govt. is repeatedly turning to LIC for its disinvestment agenda. The insurer’s NPAs have doubled since the Modi regime took over, and now there is the possibility of it bailing out debt-ridden IL & FS.

Praneta Jha 29 Oct 2018

                                              EXCERPT from this article

In any case, LIC chairman VK Sharma has said that IL&FS would not be allowed to collapse and that all options were on the table.

However, the question remains as to why LIC — entrusted with insurance and pension funds of millions of policyholders — should come to the rescue of a disaster that is a case of cronyism, mismanagement, fraud and near-complete lack of accountability and transparency?

Meanwhile, there have already been calls from the industry to privatise LIC, even as it continues to rule the roost in the life insurance market, even after private companies were allowed to enter the business of life insurance in 1999-2000.

Speaking to Newsclick, Amanulla Khan, president of All India Insurance Employees’ Association, said, “LIC goes for long-term investments and does it prudently, and so it usually earns good returns. It is a strong company, but if the present trend continues, it does not bode well for the company’s future.”

He said the union was not too concerned about the IDBI bank deal because LIC had wanted a bank of its own, since “all major banks have their own insurance company and cannot act as our agent.”

But, he said, the business of always being made to bail out troubled companies was not good for LIC’s long-term health and financial stability.

“The government must allow functional autonomy to LIC and let it make its own investment decisions. The government should not interfere or force us. LIC is trustee to its policyholders, after all, and while their money is safe (since it carries government guarantee), the immediate question is, what is going to happen to the future returns on the policyholders’ investments? Is this the wisest way to invest the hard-earned money of the people who have taken life insurance from LIC? What will happen to LIC’s future?”

**********

Kindly read this interesting article fully at the link given above.

Excerpt from my RTI Second Appeal

EXCERPT

The Life Insurance Corporation of India which is a trustee of billions of rupees of the policyholders does not deem it necessary to maintain transparency in its dealings. It does not provide a rationale to its decisions, which is very dangerous for a Public Authority of its stature, where millions of employees and policyholders are being governed by its decisions. It is not behaving in a responsible and accountable manner.

If it can get away with repudiating billions of rupees due to its resigning employees as arrears, since 1997; I shudder to think about what could happen to the policyholders’ insurance policies worth billions of rupees, in future? What is the guarantee that such a huge Reserve Fund is safe with such an insurer that makes decisions arbitrarily or doesn’t maintain its records meticulously?

I also pity the other employees and policyholders who must be facing the nightmare of not getting information under their RTI queries, from LIC of India.

 *********************************************************************************

VERY IMPORTANT

I have received the names of 45 employees (Class I Cadre) who were denied the arrears’ payment by LIC of India in this Charter dt. 2010; (5 pertaining to the WZO and 40 pertaining to the Central Office) through this RTI Application. This is incomplete information and the Corporation is unwilling to part with the statistics pertaining to the Corporation as a whole. But one can assume that approximately 25 employees of Class I cadre and 25 employees of the Class II Cadre have been denied the arrears’ payment in each Divisional Office of LIC of India.

According to the replies of the CPIOs and the FAAs of the Corporation, to my RTI query no. 3, LIC has 115 Divisional Offices, 8 Zonal Offices, 9 Audit Centres, Central Office and MDC spread all over India, thus there are 134 offices of LIC of India. Assuming that 6240 employees have been denied arrears’ payment in this Charter dt. 2010, and an equal no. of employees have been denied arrears’ payment in the Charters dated 2000 and 2005; approximately18720 employees have been denied arrears’ payment.

If each of these employees was supposed to have got Rs. 4,00.000/- the amount repudiated totally works out to a staggering Rs.74,88,000,000/-. (This is a very conservative estimate. The actual amount may be higher, depending on the actual number of resigning employees who have been denied arrears payment and difference in Retirement Benefits; and the revised wages of the resigning employees in the Higher Management Cadres of LIC of India.)

Where has all this money gone and how has it been accounted for in LIC of India’s Financial Statements? Has it even been accounted for, at all, by LIC of India, considering the fact that it does not have records of repudiated amounts due to its resigning employees as per its own admission, in reply to my RTI queries?

No wonder, Sri K. Rajivan Nair, Regional Manager, (CRM/CPIO) WZO, LIC of India, told me in his SELF-PROFESSED “OFF THE RECORD” phone call to me, FROM THE ZONAL OFFICE LANDLINE NUMBER on 30-03-2012, that “ASKING FOR ANSWERS FROM LIC IS LIKE BREAKING YOUR HEAD AGAINST A WALL. LIC WILL NOT ANSWER ANY OF YOUR REMAINING QUESTIONS. WE DO NOT WANT TO OPEN A PANDORA’S BOX BY REPLYING TO YOUR QUESTIONS.”

END OF EXCERPT

Read the full text of my RTI Second Appeal in my blog dated 18th August, 2014.

Interestingly, the CPIO, Central Office, LIC of India, admitted in her written response to this appeal that there is no reason on LIC's records; to repudiate our wage revision arrears!

So LIC's decision to repudiate our wage revision arrears is arbitrary! Not acceptable for an organization of LIC's stature!

In fact, not acceptable for any other enterprise too! 

Employees are assets and not disposable commodities. 

If there is no rationale for repudiation, why have the arrears been repudiated? Wages are our constitutional rights. Pay up, LIC of India. PRONTO.

IPO of L.I.C of India

Here's an excerpt from an interesting article in The Print:

Source: https://theprint.in/opinion/lic-to-tax-charter-budget-2020-wants-india-in-the-big-league-but-offers-mere-quick-fixes/3583

LIC to tax charter: Budget 2020 wants India in the big league, but offers mere quick fixes

RENUKA SANE 1 February, 2020 6:34 pm IST

LIC listing

Finally, the Initial Public Offering of the LIC is perhaps the boldest announcement in this Budget. This will only be possible if investors are able to see what is on LIC's books. For example, the LIC would have to tell us the scrip-wise cost of investments over (at least) the last decade, and the current market value of these investments. A lot of this detail today remains unavailable. A move to the new accounting standards, IndAS, will mean that profit will have to be booked as the difference between fair market value (as opposed to the current book value) and actual sale. The Modi government will need to have the appetite to deal with skeletons that may emerge from the LIC's closet and also be ready to lose the all-weather buyer for its own offer for sale and other transactions. This requires serious appetite for reform.