New Delhi, June 4 (TIWN): The upcoming Budget is likely to provide a timeline roadmap for the long pending merger of the three general insurance PSUs for speeding up the process which was first announced in 2018 Budget.

"The merger of three companies namely National Insurance Co Ltd, United India Insurance Co Ltd. and Oriental Insurance Co Ltd is under process as several steps have been initiated and is expected to be completed by 2019-20", the interim budget had said in its "status of implementation".

Ernst & Young has been appointed to advise on Merger Of Three State-Run General Insurers. But there have been no major advancement in the process so far.

There will be some announcements in the Budget on the timeline of the insurance merger but sticking to it also would not be so easy given the poor financial health, giant task of regionally tuned policies, software update, branch rationalisation, manpower gainfully deployment, policies merger and streamlining, sales and marketing functions, merging them into a united brand and ultimate listing. Hurrying up would not help but the merger also cannot be in pendency for unlimited years as it gives rise to uncertainty among the insurers and customers.