Finance Secretary TV Somanathan on Wednesday said that a lot of progress has been made on the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) divestment plan. "A lot of constructive work has already been completed," he said in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

"It involves technical work, it involves actuaries, it involves accountants, it involves software professionals, procedural changes, accounting changes, all of which need to be done before LIC gets listed, and there is lot of progress on that," Somanathan said.

However, he said that he was not in a position to talk about when the plan will materialise exactly.

"It is not a small amount of work, and it is a massive organisation... Work has progressed very well, I am optimistic that LIC will also be on the table at some point in time," he said.

Sources told CNBC-TV18 earlier that the government is aiming to file the DRHP for the LIC IPO with Sebi by January 2022.

The government is likely to dilute 5 percent stake initially but may increase it depending on the appetite of the market. The government may look to raise about Rs 60,000-75,000 crore from the public issue.

Currently, the government owns 100 percent stake in LIC. Once listed, LIC is likely to become one of the biggest domestic companies by market capitalisation.

The government has appointed 10 merchant bankers including Goldman Sachs (India) Securities, Citigroup Global Markets India, and Nomura Financial Advisory and Securities India to manage the mega initial public offering of country's largest insurer.

Other selected bankers include SBI Capital Market, JM Financial, Axis Capital, BofA Securities, JP Morgan India, ICICI Securities, and Kotak Mahindra Capital Co Ltd, a circular on the divestment department website said.

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