New business premium (NBP) of life insurance companies rose 39 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in April to ₹30,550.38 crore, compared to ₹21,964.2 crore in the same period last year, led by strong growth from both state-owned Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and private life insurers.
The growth was supported by a low base and continued momentum following the reduction in Goods and Services Tax (GST) on retail life insurance policies.
According to data from the Life Insurance Council, LIC’s NBP grew 38 per cent YoY to ₹18,782 crore, while private life insurers reported a 40.88 per cent YoY increase in premium income to ₹11,768 crore.
NBP under individual business rose 19.35 per cent YoY to ₹9,458.5 crore, while group business surged 50.23 per cent YoY to ₹21,091.88 crore.
“The industry has reported strong GST-led tailwind in term insurance. We believe some of this momentum has sustained during the month, indicating margin-accretive mix,” said analysts at Nuvama.
Among private insurers, SBI Life Insurance reported a 79.6 per cent year-on-year increase in NBP to ₹3,040.96 crore. HDFC Life Insurance posted a 30.27 per cent rise to ₹2,531.42 crore, while ICICI Prudential Life Insurance recorded a 25.61 per cent increase to ₹1,296.4 crore.
Bajaj Life Insurance saw NBP grow 30.25 per cent YoY to ₹936.99 crore, while Axis Max Life Insurance reported a 17.58 per cent increase to ₹696.2 crore.
The number of life insurance policies sold by insurers also rose 12.58 per cent YoY to 1.29 million in April. LIC’s policy sales grew 4.87 per cent YoY to 0.76 million, while private insurers recorded a 25.89 per cent YoY increase to 0.53 million policies.
In FY26, the life insurance industry recorded 15.7 per cent YoY growth in NBP, crossing ₹4 trillion for the first time, largely driven by the reduction in GST on insurance products from 18 per cent to zero. This was the highest growth recorded by the life insurance industry since FY23.
