According to provisional data released by the Life Insurance Council, the industry’s cumulative new business premium (NBP) for April-May 2026 stood at ₹62,581.2 crore, compared with ₹52,427.4 crore in the corresponding period last year. This translates into an increase of ₹10,153.8 crore, or 19.4% year-on-year.
The growth was led by both individual and group businesses. Individual single premiums rose 11.9% year-on-year to ₹6,956.5 crore during April-May 2026, while individual non-single premiums increased 16.7% to ₹14,380.6 crore. Group single premiums climbed 20.3% to ₹37,536.8 crore during the period.
Despite the sharp rise in premium collections, policy issuance growth remained comparatively subdued. The total number of policies and schemes issued by life insurers increased 5.1% year-on-year to 29.62 lakh during April-May 2026 from 28.19 lakh in the year-ago period.
The industry’s performance comes amid continued demand for life insurance products following the GST exemption on individual life insurance policies announced in September 2025.
Market leader Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) remained a key contributor to the sector’s growth. LIC reported total new business premium of ₹37,824.3 crore during April-May 2026, up from ₹32,015.7 crore a year earlier. Individual premiums rose to ₹8,363.2 crore from ₹7,191.1 crore, while group premiums increased 18.7% to Rs 29,457.1 crore.
For May 2026 alone, LIC reported a 13.7% rise in individual premium collections to ₹4,584.1 crore, while total new business premium stood at Rs 19,042.2 crore, up 3.5% year-on-year. Individual premium collections increased from ₹4,030.2 crore in May 2025, while group premium collections edged up to ₹14,458.1 crore from ₹14,374.9 crore.
LIC issued 10.35 lakh policies during May 2026 compared with 10.68 lakh policies a year earlier. For the April-May period, the insurer issued 17.96 lakh policies, broadly unchanged from 17.94 lakh in the corresponding period last year.
Industry data indicates that premium growth continues to outpace policy growth, suggesting that higher-value policies and stronger premium realization are contributing more significantly to revenue expansion than increases in policy volumes.
(Edited by : Anshul)
First Published: Jun 10, 2026 4:56 PM IST
