The Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has lost as much as 13 per cent market share to private rivals in terms of premium income at 87.04 per cent in the year to March 31, 2004. | |
| According to the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (IRDA) figures, the public sector insurance giant, which lost 6 per cent market share to private players in 2002-03, shed another 7.3 per cent last year. |
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| In terms of number of policies sold, the insurance giant has retained its market share of around 94 per cent. First premium income for the industry as a whole stood at Rs 18,710.15 crore during the fiscal, a growth of 10.48 per cent over the previous year. |
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| In terms of policies, LIC notched up a 12.83 per cent growth at 286.27 lakh new policies. The share of premium of private insurers increased to 12.96 per cent as against 5.66 per cent in the year 2002-03. |
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| Individually, all the private insurers increased their market share over the previous year. They also recorded a 153 per cent growth in terms of first year premium underwritten. |
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| Cumulatively, twelve private players underwrote a premium of Rs 2,425.46 crore. Among them, ICICI Prudential led with a market share of 4.01 per cent followed by Birla Sunlife at 2.40 per cent. |
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| LIC underwrote premium of Rs 16,284.68 crore during the year under reporting. LIC's market share for 2003-04 was 87.04 per cent. The business underwritten by LIC under the Varishtha Pension Bima Yojana, announced by the Government of India in July, 2003, was Rs 6070.50 crore towards 3,32,748 policies. |
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| This premium has not been included in the first year premium figures. In terms of number of policies, LIC contributed 94.21 per cent. |
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| Interestingly, 30 per cent of the business for the year was underwritten in March 2004, with private insurers and LIC underwriting business of 31 per cent and 30 per cent respectively in the said month. |
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| The premium underwritten by the private players for 16,57,636 individual policies stood at Rs 2,048.66 crore. In case of LIC, the premium underwritten under 2,69,51,919 individual policies was Rs 12,636.86 crore. |
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| A comparison of the individual single premium underwritten by the private players and LIC reveals a decline of 3.42 per cent and 61.29 per cent at Rs 287.97 crore and Rs 1,164.71 crore respectively. |
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| The decline was on account of the impact of the change in the Income Tax Act. Under the group schemes, the premium underwritten by the private players and LIC stood at Rs 376.79 crore and Rs 3,647.82 crore with lives covered at 17,35,315 and 45,10,429, respectively. |
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| The market share of the private insurers and LIC, in terms of premium underwritten for group insurance, was 9.36 per cent and 90.64 per cent, respectively. LIC covered 72 per cent of the lives under the various group schemes. |
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