General insurance premium grows 16.5%

Total premium of the general insurance industry grew 16.48 per cent in 2005-06 to Rs 20,421.16 crore from Rs 17,530.68 crore a year earlier. In 2004-05, total premium had grown 12.6 per cent.

Of general insurers' total premium, motor, health and fire account for close to 80 per cent.

Their premium income from fire risk rose 13.6 per cent y-o-y to Rs 3,752.99 crore in 2005-06. The motor insurance premium jumped 16 per cent y-o-y to Rs 8,702.17 crore in 2005-06.

Private players' share in motor insurance rose an impressive 24 per cent in 2005-06 from 16.4 per cent in 2004-05.

The health premium income zoomed 35 per cent over the previous year to Rs 2,257.54 crore in 2005-06. The premium income from the engineering portfolio in 2005-06 was Rs 980.58 crore, up 14 per cent from a year earlier.

Sandeep Bakshi, MD and CEO of general insurance company ICICI Lombard, said, "The general insurance penetration to GDP is 0.75 per cent, which is amongst the lowest in the world because health insurance is not developed. For 2006-07, motor and health will be the principle growth driver for the industry."

Detariffing of marine hull portfolio last year had seen a fall in premium rates of over 50 per cent. Prices have fallen a further 15-25 per cent this year, according to provisional and un-audited portfolio performance of the 12 insurance firms.