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| L.M. Lohani in Calcutta on Wednesday. A Telegraph picture |
Calcutta, Sept. 7: The eastern zone of the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) expects to clock a 50 per cent growth in both its first premium income and the number of policies sold during the current financial year.
“Though we initially targeted a growth of 40 per cent for 2005-06, but going by the 50 per cent rise registered till August, we have revised our target upwards. We are hopeful about maintaining the similar momentum in the coming months,” said L.M. Lohani, zonal manager (east), LIC.
In 2004-05, the eastern zone had slipped from its leading position as the first premium income earner among all zonal offices of LIC. However, it sold the highest number of policies among the four zones.
“It was because the Future Plus ? the unit-linked policy launched by LIC early this year ? sold heavily in other parts of the country. In this region, consumers still prefer traditional policies since they are risk averse,” reasoned Lohani. He added, “Since the premium in a unit-linked policy is generally larger than traditional policies, the first premium income we (the eastern zone) generated was lower than that of the western zone, which took the lead in income generation.”
“However, with the launch of Bima Gold this month, which is a traditional money back policy, we shall be able to achieve our leadership position again,” said Lohani.
Last fiscal, the eastern region had mopped up a first premium income of Rs 2,210 crore, while the western region led with Rs 2,334 crore. However, the region sold 57.27 lakh policies compared with 40.91 lakh by the western region. In 2003-04, the eastern region had achieved a first premium income of Rs 1,808 crore by selling 65.22 lakh polices.
“The lower number of policies sold during the last fiscal against the previous fiscal was due to certain inconsistencies in the distribution channel. We had switched over to a growth-oriented model for incentive payments, which met with some resistance. However, now we have made certain changes in the structure and the model is in place and accepted,” explained Lohani.
“The corporation targets to sell one crore policies of the newly launched Bima Gold while expecting a total premium income of about Rs 80,000 crore during 2005-06,” said Lohani.
