LIC IPO will benefit retail investors, says Sitharaman

"We are looking at an IPO for LIC which will bring retail investors in the picture", she said.

The LIC listing is aimed at bringing the much needed revenues to the government which is facing a shortfall due to poor tax collections.

"We are coming up with steps to simplify the tax regime. We have shown our intent to move towards a simplified tax regime and corporate tax simplification and reduction is a move towards that. The tax payer charter (as announced in the Budget) is based on trust that should be there between the taxation regime and tax payers", she said at a media conference on Budget 2020-21 after interactions with industry, academia and policy makers.

In the Budget 2020, the government announced its decision to list LIC in next fiscal.

In the Budget speech, Sitharaman, noting that the government has launched Rs 103 lakh crore of infra projects, announced providing about Rs 1.70 lakh crore for transport infrastructure and accelerating highways construction to augment India's infrastructure and create jobs.

She said focus is on infrastructure for economic development and 6,500 projects across sectors under the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) envisions ease of living for citizens.

About Rs 22,000 crore has already been provided, as support to the NIP.

Sitharaman also told the industry here that the government is engaged with states  and private investors to come up with an infra pipeline comprising over Rs 6,000 crore of projects.

The minister also said that the government will take steps so that civil offences are not treated as criminal offences and government looks forward to invest in infrastructure creation.