LIC’s April 2024 total premium hits 12-year high with Rs 12,383.64 crore collection

The country's largest life insurer, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), achieved its highest premium for April 2024, surpassing previous April figures since 2014. The total premium collection for the life insurance industry (private + LIC) surged by 61% compared to April 2023. This strong growth was primarily driven by a 113% increase in premium collection by LIC in April 2024. The total premium collected by LIC in April 2024 was Rs 12,383.64 crore, while the premium collected in April 2023 was Rs 5,810.10 crore. In comparison, the private players reported 16.58% growth to Rs 7875.22 crore.

The company said this remarkable achievement can be attributed to LIC's implementation of innovative marketing strategies and its strong reputation for reliability and customer-centric services. "These factors effectively reached a wider audience, resulting in increased policy uptake and premium collections, contributing significantly to LIC's success in posting its highest premium in 12 years," the company said in a statement.

Breaking down the premium collections, under the Individual Premium category, LIC collected a total premium of Rs 3,175.47 crore in April 2024, reflecting an increase of 25.17% from Rs 2,537.02 crore collected in April 2023. On a positive note, the Group Premium grew by 182.16% to Rs 9,141.34 crore in April 2024 from Rs 3,239.72 crore in April 2023. However, this growth was brightened by a significant increase of 100.33% in the Group Yearly Premium category, which rose to Rs 66.83 crore in April 2024 from Rs 33.36 crore in April 2023.

The total number of policies and schemes issued by LIC also increased by 9.12% to 8.56 lakh in April 2024, compared to 7.85 lakh in April 2023.

Under the Individual category, the total number of schemes and policies rise of 9.11% to 8.55 lakh in April 2024 from 7.84 lakh in April 2023. The growth in the Group Yearly Renewable policies and schemes, increased by 21.34% to 1120 in April 2024 from 923 in April 2023. However, the Group number of schemes and policies rose by 15.53% to 305 in April 2024 from 264 in April 2023.

In comparison, the private players witnessed a slower growth in April last financial year after the Union Government imposed a tax on the high-value policies (Rs 5 lakh and above premiums). Due to that, the base for April 2024 was muted for the private life insurers.

Among the segments, the Group Single Premium surged over 126 per cent from last year to Rs 11,715.42 crore. The entire group premium is dominated by LIC. The group single premium of the company increased by 200 per cent to Rs 9020.22 crore, a report in Business Standard said.

Among the large private players, SBI Life was the largest private life insurer and its premium grew by approximately 26% in the given period. HDFC Life's NBP saw a marginal rise of 4.31%, while other private sector players also witnessed healthy growth. ICICI Prudential Life Insurance's premia increased by 28.13%, Bajaj Allianz Life swelled by 25.20%, and Max Life Insurance's premium climbed by around 41%.