Life Insurance Corporation on Wednesday said its Varishtha Pension Bima scheme will continue next year also, but the interest rate and other terms and conditions will be decided by the government.

LIC is also planning to withdraw its single premium policy Bima Nivesh Triple cover and relaunch it in March, its chairman S B Mathur said on the sidelines of a FICCI conference in New Delhi.

The insurer will launch a new unit-linked scheme on the lines of Bima Plus, as part of efforts to meet its target of Rs 11,300 crore (Rs 113 billion) in first premium income and retain over 90 per cent market share by March end.

Seeking to allay fears of pensioners that the Varishtha scheme may be discontinued after government launches Dada-Dadi Bonds, Mathur said: "The pension scheme will continue next fiscal also."

Asked whether LIC will extend the scheme to more than one in a family and continue to offer 9.0 per cent assured return, Mathur said: "It is for the government to decide."

Finance Minister Jaswant Singh had earlier said that the two schemes -- Varishtha and Dada-Dadi Bonds -- will co-exist, but there was apprehension that the terms and conditions of the pension scheme might be changed considering the higher subsidy allocated for 2004-05.

Centre hiked subsidy to Rs 150 crore (Rs 1.50 billion) for Varishtha scheme for 2004-05 from Rs 45 crore (Rs 450 million) estimated for 2003-04 considering the overwhelming response from over 260,000 pensioners contributing Rs 4,800-5,000 crore (Rs 48-50 billion) in premium so far.

LIC targets to mop up about Rs 6,000 crore (Rs 60 billion) in premium from the pension scheme by the end of this fiscal.