| This reflects a 135 per cent growth over last year's (2002-03) income of Rs 420 crore. New business income rose by 106 per cent to Rs 751 crore and despite a 15 per cent lapse rate in policy renewals, the company's renewal premium increased by 325 per cent to Rs 238 crore. |
| At present ICICI Prudential Life has around a 40 per cent share among the private insurance industry in retail sales. The total sum assured since its inception has risen to Rs 16,000 crore with Rs 8,173 crore added in fiscal 2004. |
| ICICI Prudential Lift chief executive officer and managing director Shikha Sharma said that over 80 per cent of the 4.36 lakh policies sold were unit-linked plans, with pension plans accounting for just 28 per cent of new businesses. |
| "We intend to come out with more pension and annuity products in the current fiscal (2004-05) as we find this as an undeveloped market," said Sharma. |
| Not enough products exist in the market today as the industry continues to await tax reforms. Today policyholders can get total tax exemption up to Rs 10,000 under Section 10 CCC of the Income Tax Act. |
| As such, without tax reforms it is not conducive for customers to invest more under pension plans. On the group side, ICICI Prudential has not been as active as it has been a late entrant. |
| "We started targeting group insurance this year (2003-04) and have been able to tap around 100 clients. The premium has been minuscule as the sales cycle is long and varies between six-nine months to close a transaction," said Sharma. |
| Moreover, with the rate war rampant in group term, ICICI Prudential has been choosy on the business it underwrites. |
| "Group term is a commodity, and as business is purely rate-driven, this is not our focus area," she added. |
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