The life insurance sector continues to face a slowdown, as the total premium collection of companies was down 4% to Rs. 46,963 crore in the first six months of the current fiscal, against Rs. 49,046 crore in the year-ago period, data released by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) showed.

The premium collection of public sector insurer LIC dipped 3.8% to Rs. 35,342 crore in the first half of 2012-13 from Rs. 36,721 crore for the corresponding period last year, due to a fall in group non-single premium collections.

The total premium collection of 23 private life insurers also went down 5.7% to Rs. 11,621 crore in the period from Rs. 12,325 crore in the year-ago period.

The total number of polices as on September 2012 stood at 16.2 million, against 16.8 million as on September 2011.