Indian life insurers drop as new tax benefits take away investment sheen

Sbi Life Insurance

01/02/2025 08:28

** Shares of Indian life insurers fall as much as 6% before
trimming some losses      
    ** Government in union budget says people earning up to 1.28
million rupees ($14,800) per year will not have to pay any
taxes, raising threshold from 700,000 rupees earlier
    ** Since tax slab has been raised, the incentive for a
tax-saving kind of a product on the insurance side tends to
reduce - Jinay Gala, director, India Ratings & Research
    ** Says move will also lead to fresh business slowing down a
bit 
    ** HDFC Life  HDFL.NS  down 1.5%, SBI Life  SBIL.NS  falls
2% and ICICI Prudential Life  ICIR.NS  drops 2.5%   
    ** Earlier in the day, insurance stocks jumped on proposal
to raise foreign direct investment limit in the sector 

 (Reporting by Nishit Navin and Sethuraman NR in Bengaluru)
 ((nishit.navin@thomsonreuters.com;))