The public sector life insurance company has suffered a major setback. The company received a Goods and Services (GST) penalty order of Rs 605.50 crore for the financial year 2019-20. According to a regulatory filing by the leading life insurance company in the stock exchanges, this order is appealable before the Joint Commissioner of State Tax (Appeals), Mumbai. According to a Livemint news, LIC said in a regulatory filing that the corporation has obtained a demand order for interest and penalty for Maharashtra. This case relates to interest on incorrect profit and late payment of input tax credit.

Understand what is included in the demand order

According to the news, according to the exchange filing of LIC, according to the GST demand order, LIC has been asked to pay ₹ 2,94,43,47,220 as GST, ₹ 2,81,70,71,780 as interest, and ₹ 29,44,73,582 as penalty. LIC has received a GST notice of ₹ 281 crore with interest and ₹ 294 crore as a penalty from the Deputy Commissioner of State Tax, Mumbai. 29 crore is the penalty. In March 2024, LIC received a demand notice from the Additional Commissioner of Central GST and Central Excise in Jamshedpur for a penalty of about 178 crore for short payment of GST for two financial years.

Dividend cheque for ₹3,662.17 crore handed over

According to reports, LIC also handed over a dividend cheque of ₹3,662.17 crore to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday. The cheque was presented to the Finance Minister by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Managing Director (MD) of LIC. LIC paid an interim dividend of ₹2,441.45 crore on March 1, 2024, taking the total dividend paid to the Centre for the year 2023-24 to ₹6,103.62 crore. LIC has an asset base of over ₹52.85 lakh crore.

The life insurance company's first-year premium rose to ₹7,470 crore in the June quarter compared to ₹6,811 crore in the year-ago period. LIC earned ₹56,429 crore from renewal premiums as against ₹53,638 crore a year ago.