Insurance premium collection down 4.2%

The total premium collections of the life insurance industry in the country have gone down by 4.2 per cent in the first six months of the current fiscal to Rs 46,963 crore.

The premium collected during the April-September period of last fiscal was Rs 49,046 crore, according to the statistics supplied by the industry regulator— Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA).

The total premium collections of Public sector insurer LIC has gone down by 3.75 per cent to Rs 35,342 crore in the first half from Rs 36,721 crore for the corresponding period last year.

The dent was caused by the huge drop in Group non-single Premium collections of LIC which was pegged at Rs 765 crore in the first six months against Rs 6,322 crore last year.

This has pushed down the total industry Group non-single premium collections to Rs 2,552 crore this year from Rs 8,005 crore during the first half of last fiscal.

As far as private life insurers are concerned, the total premium collection has gone down by 5.7 per cent to Rs 11,622 crore in the period from Rs 12,325 crore during last fiscal same period.

The drop was largely due to the downfall in individual single premium collections which was registered at Rs 962 crore in the first six months against Rs 2,102 crore in the last year.

However, Non-life industry has shown a significant growth in terms of premium collections in the first six months.

Both Public and private sector insurance companies have collected Rs 34,001.9 crore in the first half against Rs 28,607.03 crore in the last year registering a growth of 18.9 per cent.

While the four state-owned non-life insurers collected Rs 19,876 crore, private players have collected Rs 14,125 crore from April to September this year.