Lics Investible Corpus Tops Rs 2,00,000 Crore

Life Insurance Corporation of India's (LIC's) investible capital has, for the first time, crossed Rs 2,00,000 crore mark with an accretion of Rs 23,000 crore in the first six months of the current fiscal.

The state-owned insurer's investible capital was estimated at Rs 2,09,580 crore as on September 30, 2001, compared with Rs 1,86,000 crore as on March 31, 2001.

G N Bajpai, chairman of LIC, said: "The corporation's investible capital has increased by over Rs 23,000 crore in the first half of the current financial year."

The corporation's assets under management were estimated at Rs 193,283 crore as on March 31, 2001. This includes both investible capital and fixed assets.

LIC's first-premium income in the first half of the fiscal shot up by 280 per cent to Rs 7,200 crore compared with Rs 1,900 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal. The first-premium income during 2000-01 stood at Rs 6,262 crore.

Of the Rs 2,09,580 crore investible capital, LIC had invested over Rs 1,15,306 crore, or 55 per cent in government securities, Rs 22,258 crore in infrastructure and social sector, Rs 43,251 crore in corporate debt and equity instruments Rs 11,963 crore in other loans and mortgages.

The last category includes real estate holdings and also the loans extended against insurance policies and other loans.

Bajpai said the corporation has undertaken fresh valuation of its real-estate assets spread across the country and the findings were expected soon. "Though the market value of our real estate assets is there in our balance sheet every year, the fresh exercise is aimed at bringing the valuation in line with the norms stipulated by Insurance and Regulatory Development Authority," said a senior LIC executive.