LIC expects income tax refund of Rs 25,464 crore in Q4

Life Insurance Corporation of India has received an income tax refund order of Rs 25,464 crore, and it is likely to be realised during the current quarter, its chairman Siddhartha Mohanty said.

Last month, the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), Income Tax Department, issued intimation for a refund of Rs 25,464.46 crore. The refund is related to interim bonuses to policyholders in the past seven assessment years.

"We are pursuing the matter, and we are hopeful of getting a refund from the Income Tax Department during this quarter itself," Mohanty said during the post-result interaction. During the quarter, he said, the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) would be launching more new products, including child protection.

In the third quarter, LIC launched Jeevan Utsav, Index Plus and some more products, helping it to increase the value of new business (VNB) margin levels to 16.6 per cent. The refund is likely to boost the bottom line of the corporation in the fourth quarter.

The state-owned insurer last week reported a 49 per cent jump in net profit to Rs 9,444 crore for the third quarter ended December 2023 against Rs 6,334 crore in the year-ago period.

Its net premium income improved to Rs 1,17,017 crore in the third quarter of the current fiscal from Rs 1,11,788 crore in the same period a year ago. LIC's total income also rose to Rs 2,12,447 crore in the latest December quarter compared to Rs 1,96,891 crore in the year-ago period. The LIC board has approved an interim dividend of Rs 4 per equity share of face value of Rs 10 each for FY24.

The profit for the nine months that ended December 2022 was Rs 22,970 crore is not comparable since it included an amount of Rs 4,542 crore (Net of Tax) pertaining to the accretions on the Available Solvency Margin for the last quarter of 2021-22, which was transferred from Non-Par fund to shareholders account on September 30, 2022, Mohanty had said.

The total premium income for the nine-month period ended December 31, 2023, was Rs 3,22,776 crore compared to Rs 3,42,244 crore a year ago.

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