NEW DELHI, Apr 23: Life insurance firms in the country collected Rs 1,75,022.50 crore as premium from new policies in 2016-17, registering a growth of 26.2 per cent even as the total number of policies declined.
Insurance companies had collected Rs 1,38,657.31 crore in 2015-16, according to data from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai).
Interestingly, number of policies insured in the last fiscal fell to 2,64,56,645 from 2,67,40,088 in 2015-16, indicating high value policies subscribed by policyholders.
Life insurance industry in India is the largest in the world with about 36 crore policies currently.
There are 24 life insurance players in the country. LIC is the only state-owned life insurer, while rest are from the private sector.
Insurance behemoth LIC collected the highest premium of Rs 1,24,396.27 crore (71 per cent of total premium) during 2016-17, up 27.4 per cent from a year ago, data showed.
Rest 23 private sector players’ new premium grew by 23.5 per cent to Rs 50,626.23 crore.
Among the private firms, SBI Life’s insurance premium rose by 42.8 per cent to Rs 10,145.76 crore; HDFC Standard’s collection was up 34 per cent at Rs 8,696.21 crore and ICICI Prudential grew 16.2 per cent to Rs 7,863.40 crore.
Almost all life insurers, except Reliance Nippon Life and Aegon Life, recorded growth in their premium collection in the last fiscal.
Reliance Nippon’s new premium declined by 32.5 per cent to Rs 1,051.58 crore, while Aegon Life collected Rs 91.42 crore (down 33 per cent) during the year.
Even though life insurance industry is growing by about 12-15 per cent in India, the penetration — premium as a percentage of GDP — is among the lowest in the world.
According to a survey conducted by Irdai, many households do not buy life policies considering them too expensive and unimportant.
However, this perception of uninsured households about life insurance has improved over the years, the survey found. (AGENCIES)
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