"There is no such plan," Shukla said when asked whether the insurer was planning to come up with an IPO by the end of this year.
The government has to amend the LIC Act for enabling the insurer to tap the market. IPO was one of the proposals that the corporation was earlier considering to augment its capital base.
Though LIC has a paid-up capital of Rs 5 crore (Rs 50 million), it has made separate provisions worth Rs 17,000 crore in the last three years for hiking its solvency (asset-liability) margin from 100 to about 125 per cent.
"The LIC Act provides that our solvency margin should be 100 per cent. But the IRDA stipulates 150 per cent. So, we have made provisions for Rs 17,000 crore and our solvency margin is likely to reach 125 per cent," Shukla said.
LIC, which has assets worth Rs 4,14,000 crore (Rs 4140 billion), has huge hidden reserves and could bring in more capital as and when it is required.
Moreover, it enjoys sovereign rating and had no asset-liability mismatch in the last 49 years.
LIC is expecting a higher profit (surplus) during 2004-05 and has decided to provide Rs 2,100 crore (Rs 21 billion) for offering bonus to all its policyholders on the occasion of its golden jubilee year.