General Insurance sector's PAT drops 90% in FY19, finds Irdai report

The general insurance industry saw its profit after tax (PAT) in FY19 drop 90 per cent to Rs 683 crore compared to a PAT of Rs 6,909 in FY18, data from the annual report of Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India revealed. The public sector general insurance firms posted a loss of Rs 3,228 crore in FY19 as opposed to a PAT of Rs 2,543 crore in FY18. While the state-owned general insurers suffered huge losses, the private sector insurers reported 5 per cent decline in profits in FY19 at Rs 3,584 crore compared to Rs 3,798 crore in FY18. Also, the underwriting losses of the general insurance industry increased to Rs 22,320 crore in FY19 from Rs 15,341 crore, a jump of 45 per cent. While the private general insurers reported a 38 per cent jump in their underwriting losses to Rs 2,890 crore, the public sector general insurers underwriting losses increased 47 per cent to Rs 18,533 crore. On the other hand, the life insurance industry reported a PAT of Rs 8,435.81 crore as against Rs 8,511.99 crore in FY18. Of the 24 life insurers in operations, 22 firms reported profits. The total profit reported by LIC during the year was Rs 2,688.50 crore as against Rs 2,446.41 crore. The private insurers together reported a profit after tax of Rs 5,747.31 crore as opposed to Rs 6,064.32 crore.