Insurance Regulatory Authority chairman N Rangachary, who had also been made the chairman of the Tariff Advisory Committee last week, has convened the existing TAC board meeting on August 4.

``Nothing much about the restructuring of TAC can be done immediately as IRA is yet to get its statutory power,'' said sources.

In fact the Malhotra committee had suggested that TAC should be abolished after IRA is given power to scrutinise and vet the price and products of the general insurance industry.

``This is just asuggestion from the Malhotra committee and may not be implemented immediately even though IRA will be given full constitutional powers shortly to regulate the activities of the industry,'' said the sources adding that things are yet to be clear about the new situation.As things stand of today, the Tariff Advisory Committee can neither be abolished nor be made a part of IRA either, as the latter is yet to get its constitutional power.

The move to shift the chairmanship of TAC from the GIC chairman to the IRA chief by the government has more to do with the message the BJP-led government intends to give that it is serious about the insurance sector reforms. This is for the first time during its 25 years of existence that the Tariff Advisory Committee board will not meet under the chairmanship of GIC.

The composition of Tariff Advisory Committee under the chairmanship of Rangachary is yet to be effected and the size of the new board is also not known.

At present, there are 14 members on the TAC board. Thefour subsidiary chiefs, four technical directors of the four subsidiaries, two managing directors of GIC, director bureau of cost and prices, director of insurance funds of the Maharashtra government, are the members of the present board.