The local life insurance companies have corrected the 2003 premium income blip to post a handsome 36.58% year-on-year gain in revenue for January-March 2004, data of the insurance arm of the Financial Supervision Commission shows. The rollback of tax perks previously enjoyed by the clients of life insurance firms halved revenue from 148.7 mln levs in 2002 to 74.7 mln levs last year. The insurance segment, populated by eight companies and three co-operatives, reported a premium income of 20 mln levs, up from 14.5 mln levs a year earlier. Insurance claims topped 9.4 mln levs, up 3.38% over Q1 2003. In the first quarter, Allianz Bulgaria Life edged out DZI to snatch 28% of the domestic life insurance market, ahead of the 23% share still controlled by the long-time niche dominator. AIG Life remained in the no.3 spot with 14.5% of the market, followed by Orel Life and Bulstrad-DSK Life. The top 5 increased its portion of overall life insurance revenue in Q1 by 1% year-on-year to 86.5%.