The new premium income of life insurance companies declined by 5.6 per cent to Rs 12,976.99 crore in May this year, according to the Irdai data.

As many as 24 life insurance companies in the country had a collective new business premium of Rs 13,739 crore in May 2020.

The country's largest insurer LIC reported a 12.4 per cent fall in its new premium or the first year premium income during the month to Rs 8,947.64 crore, according to the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) data. LIC had collected Rs 10,211.53 crore as the new premium, a year ago in the same month.

The rest of 23 private-sector insurers, however, posted a 14.2 per cent rise in their combined new business premium in May 2021 at Rs 4,029.35 crore as against Rs 3,527.48 crore in the previous month.

On a cumulative basis, the new premium income of life insurance players during April-May rose by nearly 11 per cent to Rs 22,715.78 crore from Rs 20,466.76 crore in the year-ago period.