Life insurers premium income falls over 6%

The life insurance industry comprising over 20 companies, including public sector LIC, saw a dip of over 6 per cent in premium income in the last 11 months with Reliance Life recording the steepest fall.

Total premium collected during the April-February period of 2012-13 fiscal by the industry stood at Rs 84,501.75 crore, down 6.12 per cent over the same period previous year.

Among the seven large private sector insurance companies with premium income of over Rs 1,000 crore, SBI Life and ICICI Prudential saw premium income dropping by 12.18 per cent and 2.04 per cent, respectively, during the period under review, IRDA data showed.

Reliance Life Insurance Company reported over 24 per cent decline in premium income during April-February this fiscal, the steepest fall among the major life insurers.

The premium income of Reliance Life Insurance during the 11-month period in 2012-13 dipped to Rs 1,143.57 crore, from Rs 1,509 crore in the same period of the previous fiscal. Some of the major players, including HDFC Standard Life and Bajaj Allianz, however, bucked the industry trend registering a growth of 12.40 per cent and 15 per cent respectively.

SBI Life collected a premium of Rs 4,022.50, followed by ICICI Prudential (Rs 3,983.66 crore), HDFC Standard (Rs 3,432.05 crore) and Bajaj Allianz (Rs 2,362.19 crore).

LIC reported a drop of 6.35 per cent in its premium collection at Rs 60,705.46 crore during the period as against Rs 64,820.48 crore in the year- ago period. Private insurers together netted Rs 23,796.29 crore in 11 months as against Rs 25,195.35 crore in the corresponding period of 2011-12, showing a decline of 5.5 per cent.