'LIC's first-premium growth to surpass 12 per cent'

Tthe insurance company is seeing 30% growth in first year premiumss.

 

This financial year, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) is set to record growth of more than 12 per cent in new business premium, Chairman S K Roy has said. He added so far, the insurer company had seen 30 per cent growth in first-year premia.

“We had budgeted for 12 per cent first-premium growth this financial year. However, I am certain we will surpass this figure,” Roy said on the sidelines of an Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) seminar.

Earlier, LIC had said it planned to invest about Rs 2.25 lakh crore, of which Rs 40,000 crore would be in equity. Roy, however, clarified the Rs 40,000-crore limit might be exceeded if there were good investment opportunities in the capital market. He added LIC had invested about Rs 33,000 crore in capital markets, and the trend would continue if good opportunities came by.

In the debt segment, too, the company is looking to cash in on good investments. “Debt is not an opportunity available in large quantities. We are considering whatever is available,” Roy said.

With the new traditional product regime to begin from January 1, 2014, the LIC chairman said while old products were going off shelves, new ones were being introduced. “We plan to have 15 life products in place by December 31,” he said, adding all these products would be traditional ones; there wouldn’t be any unit-linked product. “In sequence of priority, we wanted to get traditional products in place first,” he said.

According to the LIC website, the insurer has withdrawn 19 products from the market, including Jeevan Nischay and Jeevan Sugam.

On disinvestment in public sector undertakings, he said this was a government activity, but for LIC, it was an investment activity. “If it is good, we participate,” he said.