New India Assurance ordered to pay ₹2,379 crore by tax authority

New India Assurance, India's largest state-backed general insurer, has been ordered to pay 23.79 billion rupees by the local tax authority over alleged past dues, the company said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday.

The order comes after the state-owned insurer was accused of having failed to pay taxes on premiums it received in its co-insurance business and on the commissions earned on the reinsurance premium ceded, as per the filing.

The Mumbai-based NIA said that it will appeal the order, as coinsurance premium and reinsurance commission transactions were declared as non-taxable by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, India's central tax authority, in 2024.

"Considering... (the) clarification issued by the CBIC and on advice of our tax consultants, the company believes that it has strong case to defend on merits," NIA said in its filing.

The insurer, which sells health, motor, crop and property insurance policy had recorded a profit of 3.91 billion rupees in the April-June quarter of the financial year 2025-26, compared to 2.17 billion rupees in the same period of 2024-25.

Its gross written premium grew by 13.11% to 133.34 billion rupees in the first quarter of the ongoing fiscal year.