LIC looks north for revenues

Northern zone has contributed Rs 2,29,1.9784 lakh towards the first premium

State-owned LIC is hopeful to achieve an asset base of Rs 5 lakh crore by the end of this fiscal.This was stated by Atul Kumar Shukla, chairman, LIC, while interacting with Business Standard.

Shukla was in the city to inaugurate the new divisional office building "Jeevan Prakash" of LIC, built at a cost of about Rs 4 crore. He said, "We are quite confident, as we have already achieved Rs 4.85 lakh crore asset base."

Adding furthur, he said,"Earlier, the eastern and western zones were the most promising zones for LIC, but this fiscal, the northern zone has emerged as one having enormous potential.

Till 31st January, the northern zone had sold 23,63,120 policies contributing Rs 2,29,197.84 (in lakhs) towards the first premium income. The Amritsar zone had sold 1,14, 156 policies and collected Rs. 12,233.0(in lakhs) during the same period, thus maintaining a growth of about 200 per cent since the start of the current financial year, and was among the leading divisions of the country, he further added.

Commenting on promising segments, he said in the years to come, pension funds would gain popularity, as the cost of living index was increasing.

"Pension has a tremendous growth potential in the future, as almost 90 per cent people in the country have no old age benefits or health cover. LIC has already achieved a growth rate of 150 per cent in pension sectors till January 2006", he said.

He further added that the business growth of LIC in the current financial year was 40 percent, thus witnessed 20 per cent growth as compared to the last fiscal, while the growth rate of private insurance companies for the first three quarters upto 31st December 2005, stood at 91 per cent, from 147 per cent during the corresponding period.

Commenting on investment in Punjab, he said, total investment in Punjab stood at Rs 4399 crores in 2004-05, of which Rs 636.80 crore had been given to the State Electricity Board for providing electricity to the people to Punjab. Around Rs 7.31 crore had been provided to the state government for the social housing scheme "" for constructing houses for the home less people.

Apart from this, LIC had invested in state government securities, amounting to Rs 1465 crore. Also, it had given more than Rs 24 crore to Municipalities, and Zila Parishads for providing drinking water, he said.