New Delhi: The life insurance industry comprising over 20 companies, including public sector LIC, saw a dip of over 6 per cent in premium income in the past 11 months with Reliance Life recording the steepest fall.

Total premium collected during the April-February period of financial year 2012-13 (FY13) by the industry stood at 84,501.75 crore, down 6.12 per cent over the same period previous year.

Among the seven large private sector insurance companies with premium income of over 1,000 crore, SBI Life and ICICI Prudential saw premium income dropping by 12.18 per cent and 2.04 per cent, respectively, during the period under review, data released by the regulator Irda showed.

Reliance Life Insurance reported over 24 per cent decline in premium income during April-February, the steepest fall among the major life insurers.

The premium income of Reliance Life Insurance during the 11-month period in 2012-13 dipped to 1, 143.57 crore, from 1, 509 crore in the same period of the previous financial year.

Some of the major players, including HDFC Standard Life and Bajaj Allianz, however, bucked the industry trend registering a growth of 12.40 per cent and 15 per cent, respectively.

SBI Life collected a premium of 4,022.50, followed by ICICI Prudential (Rs 3,983.66 crore), HDFC Standard (Rs 3,432.05 crore) and Bajaj Allianz (Rs 2,362.19 crore), during the period under review, the data showed.

India’s largest life insurer LIC reported a drop of 6.35 per cent in its premium collection at 60, 705.46 crore during the period against 64, 820.48 crore in the year-ago period.

Private insurers together netted 23, 796.29 crore in the 11-month period, against 25,195.35 crore in the corresponding period of 2011-12, showing a decline of 5.5 per cent.

Another private sector player, Max Life, saw a meagre 0.84 per cent drop in premium income at Rs 1,587.84 crore, while Birla Sun Life’s collection dropped 9.01 per cent to 1,368.35 crore during the period.

Life insurance companies collect premium under four segments – individual single, individual non-single, group single and group non-single.

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