The roll out of the Goods & Service Tax (GST) would impact pure risk products in life insurance space as premiums would go up marginally, feels private insurer Exide Insurance.
“Service tax is charged on the risk component, the savings component is exempted. The GST at the rate of 18 per cent will not have any significant impact on the life insurance business as a whole. But, the pure protection plans would be impacted We are awaiting the details and clarification on the final GST rate”, said Kshitij Jain, managing director and chief executive officer of Exide Life Insurance.
Jain said the affordability of life insurance for customers will not be affected after GST through premiums on pure risk products are likely to go up.
Exide Insurance expects a growth of 30 per cent in new business premium for this fiscal. Its growth projection exceeds the industry average of 20 per cent.
In terms of AUMs (assets under management), the insurer logged 10 per cent growth in previous fiscal and hopes to keep to the same pace in FY18. Exide Insurance has AUM of Rs 11,015 crore.
The company posted Rs 112 crore net profit in 2016-17 higher by 27 per cent over the year-ago fiscal. It has been registering profits consecutively for the last five years.
Going ahead, Exide Insurance plans to launch a new Money Back Plan on its endowment platform. “Under this proposed plan, our customers will be entitled to money back every fourth year and at the same time enjoy life time protection. We hope to roll out this plan in the July-September quarter after the approval of the insurance regulator.”
Asked on the market share, he said, “Market share at our stage is not pertinent. Despite managing AUMs of over Rs 11,000 crore, our market share is only one per cent. In fact, there are 23 players in private life insurance space whose combined market share is only 30 per cent. Market share should be more relevant for bigger players like Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC).