New Delhi, Feb. 16: The Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) will launch its first unit-linked group gratuity scheme next month to tap the long-term savings of the salaried class.

“We will launch Gratuity Plus, the first unit-linked scheme in group pension plan by March-end,” LIC executive director R. Venugopal said on the sidelines of a Ficci pension conference here today.

He said LIC had already sent the proposal to the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority for its approval.

Though this is the first unit-linked pension plan, LIC has three unit-linked plans in the life insurance side ? Jeevan Plus, Future Plus and Bima Plus. Till now, it has sold a total of 15.75 lakh unit-linked policies and earned a premium income of Rs 5,200 crore.

LIC, which is the second largest pension fund manager in the country after the Employees Provident Fund Organisation, manages a corpus of Rs 43,000 crore.

The corporation’s income from new business premium in pension and gratuity schemes till January 31 stood at Rs 2,732 crore, covering 36.75 lakh investors under 7,981 schemes. LIC had garnered Rs 1,831 crore in the same period last year.