India’s life insurance sector recorded higher new business in December, with recent changes to goods and services tax (GST) on individual life policies coinciding with an increase in sales and premium income.
Business Standard reported that industry-wide new business premiums (NBP) reached INR42,150.8 crore in December, up 39.5% from INR30,218.71 crore in the same month a year earlier, according to data from the Life Insurance Council. December marked the fastest monthly NBP growth so far in the 2025–26 financial year and followed more than 20% year-on-year growth in November. The rationalisation of GST on individual life premiums has lowered the overall cost of policies for customers and has been associated with higher protection and savings purchases. For regional insurers and reinsurers, the shift provides an example of how tax policy can affect life insurance demand in large Asian markets.
State-owned Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) accounted for a major share of the December expansion. Its new business premiums rose 57.45% year on year to INR21,293.9 crore, up from INR13,523.9 crore a year earlier. Private life insurers reported a 24.93% increase in NBP over the same period, to INR20,856.9 crore compared with INR16,694.85 crore in December 2024. Within LIC’s portfolio, group single premium business remained the largest segment, increasing 75.9% to INR14,730.93 crore from INR8,373.11 crore in the prior-year month. LIC’s individual business premiums grew 27.4% to INR6,562.96 crore.
For private life insurers, individual business expanded 20.39% to INR14,387.15 crore, while group business increased 36.35% to INR6,469.74 crore. The data shows that both corporate and retail channels contributed to the increase in premiums, with group single premium contracts continuing to account for a substantial share of industry flows.
Among large private-sector players, SBI Life Insurance, the country’s biggest private life insurer by new business, reported premiums of INR6,336.96 crore in December, a 19.4% year-on-year rise. HDFC Life Insurance’s premiums grew 14.55% to INR3,108.4 crore for the month. ICICI Prudential Life Insurance recorded a 25.08% increase in premiums to INR1,945.23 crore, while Max Life Insurance reported 24.97% growth to INR1,567.72 crore.
In terms of volumes, policy issuances across life insurers rose 35.44% year on year in December, reaching 2.8 million policies. The higher policy count indicates that growth was supported by a larger number of contracts rather than being driven solely by higher average ticket sizes.
For the nine months ended December 2025, India’s life insurers generated NBP of INR3.11 trillion, up 13% from the corresponding period a year earlier. LIC’s premiums for the period rose 12.34% to INR1.77 trillion, while private life insurers collectively reported 14% growth, taking their total nine-month premiums to INR1.33 trillion. The number of policies sold between April and December 2025 increased 1.71% year on year to 18.4 million. This compares with a 2.74% contraction over the same period in 2024 and represents a shift back to positive policy growth.
Recent performance aligns with medium-term projections for India’s life insurance market. Research from GlobalData estimates that the country’s life insurance gross written premiums (GWP) could reach INR14.6 trillion (about US$170 billion) by 2029, up from INR9.2 trillion (about US$110.2 billion) in 2024, corresponding to a compound annual growth rate of 9.6% over 2024–2029. GlobalData cites factors including rising financial literacy, increased use of digital distribution platforms, and changes in customer preferences covering both whole life and term insurance products. The firm notes that term coverage is attracting more interest from younger consumers alongside traditional savings-oriented products. For Asia-focused insurance groups, India’s tax changes, digital adoption, and demographic profile suggest that the market will be an important source of regional life premium growth over the remainder of the decade.
