New Delhi - Life insurers' premium income from new business fell by 16.28% to Rs 17,490.68 crore in September, data from Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) showed on Thursday.
The insurance companies had earned Rs 20,892.07 as premium from new policies in the same month a year ago.
Of the all 24 life insurance companies, state-owned LIC witnessed a decline of nearly 30% as premium income from new policies to Rs 10,778.81 crore in September as against Rs 15,302.99 crore in the same month previous year.
However, the 23 private sector players recorded an increase of 20% in their new business premium or the first year premium at Rs 6,711.86 crore during the month under review from Rs 5,589.08 crore in year-ago period.
Among the private sector life insurers, SBI Life witnessed a jump of 36.35% in new premium at Rs 1,115.11 crore as against Rs 817.81 crore year ago. HDFC Standard Life 30.45% (Rs 1,459.80 crore); ICICI Prudential Life 11.47% (Rs 831.24 crore); Aditya Birla Sun Life 50.58% (Rs 541.27 crore); Max Life 25.39% (Rs 463.49 crore); Tata AIA Life 57.81% (Rs 182.32 crore) and Edelweiss Tokio Life 67.11% (Rs 40.68 crore).
India First Life recorded a jump of 279.43% in new premium collection to Rs 345.36 crore during the month as against Rs 91.02 crore in September 2017.
Those who registered a fall in new business premium included Bajaj Allianz Life down 40.54% at Rs 500.21 crore and DHFL Pramerica Life down 6.53% at Rs 110.64 crore.
Cumulatively, the overall premium collection by all the 24 players grew by 1.1% to Rs 93,079.03 crore during April-September period of 2018-19, up from Rs 92,065.36 crore in same period of 2017-18.
For LIC, the April-September new business premium has come down by 6.95% to Rs 63,480.68 crore from Rs 68,224.29 crore a year ago.
For the rest of private players the cumulative new premium income till September this fiscal registered a growth of 24.15% at Rs 29,598.35 crore from Rs 23,841.06 crore.