Kathmandu: The ongoing economic recession has affected the business growth of life and non-life insurance companies. According to the data released by the Insurance Board, life insurance premium income has increased by only 16.75 percent till the month of Jestha. Similarly, non-life insurance business has increased by 28.80 percent in the same period.
As of Asar end(mid-July 2021) of the last fiscal year, life insurance premium income had increased by 26.18 percent. There are only 15 days left till the end of the fiscal year. It has been estimated that, life insurance business growth may increase a bit more but not as much as last fiscal year.
Similarly, non-life insurance business was only 22.74 percent in the last fiscal year. But the growth rate of the non-life insurance business has improved this year. It is expected to improve by about 6/7 percentage this year. The non-life insurance company’s business did not improve much last year due to the closure of industries, factories, transportation and other sectors amid Covid19 pandemic and lock-down. On the other hand, non-life insurance companies have been limiting engineering insurance to paper only in the past year. After the intervention of the Insurance Board to fixed the minimum tariff for engineering and hydropower insurance, there has been significant improvement in this segment of non-life insurance business.
As of Jestha end, life insurance companies have earned Rs. 119 billion. Life insurance companies had earned Rs. 102 billion in the same period last fiscal year 2077/78. Similarly, non-life insurance companies have earned Rs. 34.15 billion as of Jestha end. It was 26.52 billion in the corresponding period of the last year.
The total number of insurance policies has increased by 49 percent during current fiscal year 2078/79. Life insurance companies have sold 12.6 million policies.
