Page 19 - Insurance Times May 2023

Govt appoints two MDs the country with total assets under LIC hopes next set of
management (AUM) of over Rs 41.66
for Life Insurance Corpo- insurance reforms will get
lakh crore (as of September 2022).
ration Parliament nod
Bagchi to be next CEO of
The government has appointed M LIC is hopeful that the next set of
Jagannath and Tablesh Pandey as ICICI Pru Life proposed reforms to the insurance
Managing Directors of Life Insurance sector will soon go through
ICICI Bank executive director Anup
Corporation of India (LIC). Parliament, fuelling the pace at which
Bagchi will take over as MD & CEO of
the country marches towards
The Appointments Committee of the ICICI Prudential Life Insurance after
"insurance for all" by 2047, its past
Cabinet (ACC) has approved the incumbent N S Kannan retires on June
Chairman MR Kumar said.
appointments, according to a circular 18.
issued by the Department of Personnel "I can't give any timeline. It is hopeful
In their meeting, the board of ICICI
and Training. The government had last that the next set of insurance reforms
Prudential approved the appointment
week appointed Siddhartha Mohanty, will get passed soon, as the mantra for
of Bagchi as CEO and, to ensure a
who is currently serving as the everyone is insurance for all by 2047.
seamless transition, appointed him as
managing director (MD) of LIC, as its If everybody is working on that
chief operating officer with effect from
Acting Chairperson for three months mantra, then I am sure things will
May 1. Bagchi was appointed ED of the
from March 14. happen," Kumar said when asked how
bank in February 2017 and was non-
confident he was about the passage of
The Financial Services Institutions executive director of the life company
proposed insurance reforms in
Bureau (FSIB) is expected to finalise since October 2018.
Parliament in the upcoming second leg
the name of the new Chairperson for
The board placed on record
LIC in the coming weeks. Mohanty is of the budget session.
appreciation of Kannan's service and
considered as the frontrunner for the It may be recalled that the Centre had
contribution to the growth and success
Chairperson post. late last year proposed several
of ICICI Group over the last 30 years
amendments to the Insurance Act and
LIC is the largest financial institution in across a variety of roles.
the Insurance Regulatory and
Development Authority Act as part of
High-value life policy sales lack big push in Feb-Mar its overall efforts to enhance insurance
Life insurance companies have so far not seen any significant pickup in high- penetration and encourage product
value non-par policy sales after the government in the Union Budget 2023 innovation and diversification so as to
decided to tax proceeds of such policies sold from April 1, 2023. achieve the goal of "insurance for all"
by 2047.
In the Budget, the government announced that proceeds from high-value
life insurance policies (non-ULIPs) will be taxed. The intention was to help These proposals are likely to find their
plug the arbitrage that high-net-worth individuals (HNIs) use for tax-free way into an Insurance Amendment
returns on their insurance policies. Bill, which may get introduced in the
second leg of the budget session that
Following the Budget announcement many brokerages had reckoned that
is likely to begin mid-March.
high-value non-par guaranteed products could see fire sales over the next
two months (February and March). This was to avail tax benefits, which
only go away from April 1.
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However, the market daily informed that February did not see any significant
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increase in sales of such policies in the aftermath of the government decision.
While insurers expected March to be much better, but with less than a Digital Trends in Motor
fortnight left in the month, insurers are still saying that they have not seen Insurance
any extraordinary growth in sales, it added.
Vighnesh Shahane, managing director (MD) and chief executive officer
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(CEO), Ageas Federal Life Insurance, told BS, "We have not seen
extraordinary growth in the sale of high-value non-ULIP life insurance
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policies. This is because of the government's decision to tax such policies.

18 May 2023 The Insurance Times