New Delhi: With purchase of PSU shares worth over 2,000 crore this fiscal, state-run insurer LIC has contributed about 10 per cent to the government's record high disinvestment kitty of about 23,900 crore in 2012-13.

In the current fiscal, the government has sold shares in eight public sector companies NBCC, HCL, NTPC, RCF, Nalco, Oil India, NMDC and SAIL  as part of its disinvestment programme for the current fiscal.

The share sale in these companies has helped the exchequer garner a total estimated amount of 23,900 crore the highest ever figure for any single financial year ever since the disinvestment drive began in the year 1991-92.

Prior to this, the highest one-year disinvestment kitty was realised in the fiscal year 2009-10 at 23,553 crore.

The first year of disinvestment in 1991-92 recorded total proceeds of 3,038 crore, while the cumulative amount raised under this programme since then is about 1.37 lakh crore.

Contrary to the general perception, (LIC) Life Insurance Corporation of India has not bailed out the government's various disinvestment drives in the current fiscal.

While LIC has purchased shares in most of the share sales by the government in 2012-13, the cumulative amount of shares purchased by the insurer in seven out of eight disinvestment candidates is only about 2,000 crore.

The amount of shares purchased by LIC or other buyers in SAIL has not been disclosed so far, as the auction for sale of shares in the PSU steel giant was held last week itself.

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