Irdai asks state-run insurers to account for wage costs annually

IRDAI has directed three public sector general insurers to spread wage cost provisioning annually rather than absorb periodic hits from wage settlements on their balance sheets. The directive comes as the government has ruled out fresh capital infusion into National Insurance, Oriental Insurance and United India Insurance, which reported deeply negative solvency ratios of 1.03, 0.67 and 0.65 respectively as of March 2025. Each insurer could realize around Rs 1,000-1,200 crore by selling 15-20% of their NSE stakes and gain an additional Rs 5,000 crore from revaluation, but would still require an estimated Rs 10,000-12,000 crore each to meet the 1.5 times solvency requirement.