LIC premium income up 119%

The Life Insurance Corporation of India has registered a first premium income of Rs 39,541 crore for FY06-07 against Rs 18,085 crore in FY05-06, posting a growth of 118.6 per cent.

The public sector behemoth has sold 38.2 million policies in FY06-07. The Budget achievement in policy is 102.5 per cent and, in premium it is 162 per cent. Bancassurance and alternate channels sold 5.8 lakh policies raking in Rs 664 crore in premium. The growth in terms of premium procured under these channels was 88 per cent.

Under its group insurance portfolio, the number of lives covered grew by 64 per cent and stood at 84 lakh, up from 51 lakh lives covered in FY05-06. The new business premium was Rs 11,282 crore, which exceeded last year's figure by more than Rs 8,000 crore, registering a growth of 188 per cent against 7 per cent in FY05-06.

The mega schemes bagged by LIC included Mumbai Port Trust, SAIL and Vizag Steel Plant.

More than 57 lakh people had opted for LIC's social security schemes. The Pannadhay Jeevan Amrit Yojana launched by Rajasthan government covered more than 21 lakh lives.

The central zone of the Corporation, covering Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, showed the highest growth rate in policies with 42.65 per cent, while its northern zone showed the highest growth rate in premium with 201 per cent. The eastern zone sold the highest number of policies "" 79.5 lakh "" followed by south central zone, covering Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh with 67.61 lakh policies.

LIC's micro insurance product Jeevan Madhur, launched by President APJ Abdul Kalam in September last year, has succeeded in extending insurance coverage of Rs 110 crore to 80,637 economically underprivileged people in the society.