Chennai, Apr 21 (IANS): One of Asia's life insurance giants, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) closed last fiscal with a new business premium or first year premium of Rs 1.84 trillion, the company said.

The insurer also paid Rs.1.34 trillion as claims last fiscal.

According to LIC, it earned a new business or first year premium of about Rs 1.84 trillion last fiscal up from about Rs 1.77 trillion earned the previous year.

LIC said that it had earned about Rs 564 billion of fresh premium or new business premium last fiscal selling about 2.10 crore policies commanding a market share of 66.18 per cent.

The insurer earned about Rs 1.27 trillion under pension and group insurance schemes last year.

However, LIC is silent on the total premium earned - new business plus renewal premium- for last year.

Last year LIC added 345,469 agents, taking the total to about 13.53 lakh agents.

On the claims front, last year LIC paid out about Rs 1.34 trillion.

The company settled about 2.19 crore maturity claims, money back policy claims and annuities, amounting to about Rs 1.16 trillion.

LIC also settled about 9.59 lakh death claims amounting to about Rs 181 billion. Annuity payments due in March 2021 have also been settled on due dates.