LIC’s market share based on first-year premium income for the first half of FY26 was lower, at 59.41%, at end-September 2025, compared to 61.07% at end-September 2024. | Photo credit: REUTERS
India’s largest life insurer sold 72,60,573 new policies in the first six months (H1: April-September) of FY26, compared to 91,70,420 new policies in the first half of FY25. In the second half of the financial year (October-March) of FY25, 90,28,059 new policies were sold.
At the same time, the company’s market share in terms of first-year premium revenue was lower for the first half of FY26, at 59.41 percent, at end-September 2025, compared to 61.07 percent at end-September 2024.
Doraiswamy noted that to come into compliance with the terms of the Master Circular (on life insurance products), LIC had to completely overhaul almost all products on sale as on September 30, 2024.
So, to comply with the circular, LIC had to increase the minimum sum assured for the most popular products in LIC’s savings category.
GST 2.0 pause
The LIC chief explained that this resulted in a sharp decline in the number of policies sold, especially in the ticket sizes between ₹1 lakh and ₹1,99,999.
“So that resulted in a decline in the number of policies sold in the second half of last year, and that continued into the first half of FY26 as the comparison was with the previous regime,” he told analysts.
As the planned (product) withdrawals had been announced, there was also a large increase in the number of policies sold in the month of September 2024 in the run-up to their discontinuation.
“So we are comparing on a large basis, first point. Secondly, on September 5, the government of India came out with reforms for the GST structure. And the GST exemption for life insurance business was announced with effect from September 22,” Doraiswamy said.
Therefore, between the above dates, there was an almost complete halt in purchasing policies on the individual side, and people looked forward to the benefit of the VAT exemption.
Bounce back
Doraiswamy noted that business saw a major decline during that nearly 15-day period. And that could not be compensated for in the last eight days of September. This was the main reason why the number of policies sold fell in the first half of the current year.
“However, from October 1, the scenario has completely changed and we have very good traction and are showing substantial growth in the number of policies sold.
“We are confident that we will be able to fully catch up and achieve good performance in terms of number of policies by the end of the current financial year,” Doraiswamy said.
He emphasized that the company’s focus will be on substantially increasing revenue in the second half to offset the impact of the discontinued tax benefit, in addition to improving profitability by focusing on improved ticket size and on the contribution of the product line.
Published on November 16, 2025
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