State-owned non-life insurers report Rs 7,558 cr net profit in FY24

State-owned non-life insurers reported a combined net profit of Rs 7,558 crore in 2023-24 (FY24), compared to a loss of nearly Rs 3,529 crore in FY23, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said in a written response to a question in the Lok Sabha.

Public-sector general insurers include New India Assurance Company, Oriental Insurance, United India Insurance, and National Insurance Company. General Insurance Corporation (GIC Re) is the sole state-owned reinsurer in the country. Agriculture Insurance Company is the public-sector agriculture insurer.

This comes days after Department of Financial Services Secretary (DFS) Vivek Joshi indicated that the government had asked state-owned general insurers, who are struggling to improve their solvency ratio and profitability to move out of motor and health insurance segments. These two are identified as significantly loss-making segments and moving out of these areas will help to strengthen the financial health and operational efficiency of the insurers.

The government had infused capital worth Rs 17,450 crore in three years from FY20 to FY22 to restore solvency levels to control level.

“Companies have undertaken various steps to improve their profitability, which inter alia, included adopting key performance indicators (KPIs) for company and employees, enhancing their IT capabilities, launching new products, setting up centralised hubs for underwriting and claims, etc. As a result of such measures, the financial position of these companies has begun to improve,” Chaudhary said.