PremiumLife insurance firms have witnessed a decline in their new premium incomes in May this year, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) said on Wednesday.
According to Irdai, new premium income has been declined by 5.6% to 12,976.99 crore in May 2021.
Last year, a total of 24 registered life insurance firms had a collective new business premium of ₹13,739 crore in the same period.
The country's largest insurer LIC reported a 12.4% dip in its new premium or the first year premium income to ₹8,947.64 crore last month, the Irdai said in a statement.
In May 2020, the Life Insurance Corporation had collected ₹10,211.53 crore as the new premium. LIC collected the highest ever new business premium of ₹1.84 lakh crore in the fiscal ended March 31, 2021.
However, the other 23 private-sector insurers, posted a 14.2% rise in their combined new business premium in May 2021 at ₹4,029.35 crore as against ₹3,527.48 crore in the year-ago month.
Cumulatively, the new premium income of life insurance players during April-May rose by nearly 11% to ₹22,715.78 crore from ₹20,466.76 crore in the year-ago period.
Meanwhile, the Centre on Wednesday gave a nine-month extension to LIC Chairman M R Kumar till March next year in view of the insurer's proposed initial public offer.
The government has approved the proposal of the Department of Financial Services for extending the term of Kumar from June 30, 2021 till March 13, 2022.
In fact, rules under the Life Insurance Corporation Act, 1956, have been amended to provide extension beyond 60 years in view of the ongoing preparation for the LIC IPO.
Kumar was to retire this month upon attaining the age of 60 years.
LIC has an asset base of ₹31,96,214.81 crore.
