SME Editorial
Premium income of life insurance companies grew 12.98 per cent to Rs 7.83 trillion in fiscal 2023 while that of general insurers increased by 16.4 per cent to Rs 2.57 trillion, as per the Irdai’s annual report released on Wednesday.
Private sector life insurers have clocked a growth of 16.34 per cent in premiums, while the public sector life insurer recorded a 10.90 per cent rise in premiums, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) said in its Annual Report 2022-23.
Renewal premium continues to contribute the majority of total premiums underwritten by life insurers at 52.56 per cent in 2022-23. The rest 47.44 per cent is contributed by the new business premium.
However, the growth in new business premium was higher at 17.90 per cent compared to renewal business at 8.88 per cent, as per the report.
During 2022-23, Irdai said, life insurers issued 284.70 lakh new policies under individual business, out of which public sector insurers issued 204.29 lakh policies (71.75 per cent) and private life insurers issued 80.42 lakh policies (28.25 per cent).
Profit after tax of the life insurance industry grew over five-fold to Rs 42,788 crore in 2022-23 against 7,751 crore in the preceding fiscal.
The public sector reported 800 per cent profit profit, while private insurers together registered an increase by 72.36 per cent in 2022-23.
The life insurance industry reported gross expenses of management of Rs 1.31 trillion during 2022-23, 16.88 per cent of the total gross premium.
As per the report, the non-life insurance industry has underwritten a total direct premium of Rs 2.57 trillion in India, registering a growth of 16.40 per cent from the previous year.
As many as 27 private sector insurers (including standalone health insurers) have underwritten Rs 1.58 trillion against Rs 1.30 trillion in 2021-22.
Public sector general insurers constitute 38.42 per cent of the market share, while the private sector general insurers have the remaining 61.58 per cent.
Commission expenses and operating expenses constitute a major part of the total expenses.
The gross commission expenses of public sector general insurers, private general insurers, standalone health insurers and specialised insurers stood at Rs 6,341 crore, Rs 10,192 crore, Rs 3,487 crore and Rs 125 crore, respectively for 2022-23.
The underwriting losses of non-life insurers increased to Rs 32,797 crore in 2022-23 (Rs 31,810 crore in the previous year). The losses increased by 3.11 per cent over the previous year.
As per Swiss Re Sigma Report, the life insurance penetration in India has been reduced from 3.2 per cent in 2021-22 to 3 per cent in 2022-23 and the same for the non-life insurance sector remained at 1 per cent in both these years, Irdai said.
As such, India’s overall insurance penetration reduced to 4 per cent in 2022-23 from the level of 4.2 per cent in 2021-22.
