Calcutta, Oct. 19: The Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) is fast losing its business to private players. Its total income from the sale of new policies between April and July this year has declined to Rs 10,797.10 crore from Rs 14,186.04 crore during the same period last year, a fall of 23.89 per cent.

India’s No. 1 life insurer has witnessed a significant decline in new businesses across all categories of individual as well as group policies. The decline in first premium income was the sharpest in the individual non-single premium category — the mainstay for any life insurer.

First premium income from the sales of individual non-single premium policies came down to Rs 4,482.77 crore in the April-July period in the current financial year from Rs 6,717.11 crore in the same period a year ago, a drop of 33.26 per cent.

In comparison, all the 19 life insurers in the private sector recorded handsome growth, though much less than the past few years. First premium income of all private life insurers taken together grew 65.44 per cent to Rs 9,380.92 crore between April and July this year compared with Rs 5,670.31 crore in the previous corresponding period.

“As private sector insurers are going to smaller cities and towns in a big way, the LIC is losing its businesses in these areas, too. Private sector players have already outgrown the LIC in metros,” said the chief executive officer of a private sector life insurance company on conditions of anonymity.

“The LIC is losing its monopoly position to private sector life insurers even in rural India,” he said. LIC officials were, however, not willing to comment on the declining performance. They attributed the decline in new business to plummeting stock markets and the general economic slowdown.