Page 7 - Insurance Times April 2019

Farmers in Parbhani want Reinsurance reforms to help non-life biz: Moody's
Reliance General to pay Rating agency Moody's has forecast bright prospects for the non-life industry,
thanks to liberalisation of reinsurance and the
up Ayushman Bharat programme adding depth to the in-
Marathwada, which is notorious for surance market.
farmer sui- "The liberalisation of reinsurance which allows new-
cides had comers to compete with GIC Re is a credit positive
pinne d for the non-life companies. Besides providing an ad-
hopes on ditional capital, it provides a bigger pool of experience," said Mohammed Ali
the new Londe, analyst, Moody's. He added that the timing is also good as the reinsur-
crop insurance scheme - Pradhan ance companies can diversify, despite large payouts due to catastrophic claims,
Mantri Fasal Bhima Yojana (PMFBY) thanks to support from alternate capital. Reinsurance companies provide pro-
to save its farmers. But it has been tection to insurance companies.
a complete disappointment. Farmers According to Londe, the new health programme Ayushman Bharat, or National
of the region are in despair for they
Health Protection Mission (AB-NHBM), will boost premiums. "The move is credit
have not yet received the settlement positive for India's insurers because it will help grow health premiums and pro-
for the crops lost in 2017, despite vide them with cross-selling opportunities," said Londe. He said that even where
having paid the premium.
the trust model was adopted it will help improve insurance awareness and pen-
The Kharif season in 2017 in etration and will help the industry in building hospital networks and to get
Parbhani district of Marathwada was underwriting pricing right.
covered by Reliance General. Farm-
On the proposed merger of the three non-life insurance companies - National
ers had lost their crop because of Insurance, Oriental Insurance and United India Insurance, he said that there
monsoon failure in that season.
were two upsides for the merged entity.
A farmer activist, Maulik Kadam,
District President of Shetkari Govt approves pension for employees of PSU insurers
Sanghatana told that a total of
In a big bonanza to over 42,000 employees of public sector insurance compa-
2,79,000 farmers in the Parbhani
nies, the government on March 2 decided to give
district paid Rs.19.27 crore as pre-
one more pension option as retirement benefit to
mium for soybean in the kharif 2017
these left over officers and staff who missed the op-
to Reliance General.
portunity in the past.
It was only after farmers of the dis- This benefit is applicable to those who have joined
trict joined hands and took the prob-
any of the Public Sector Insurance Companies (PSICs)
lem to the District Agriculture De- on or before June 28, 1995.
partment and the Collector in May
2018 and went on a hunger strike "Govt. approves one more pension option for left over employees of Public
that Reliance General settled the Sector Insurance Companies who joined on or before 28.06.1995. To benefit
claims of soybean farmers in 42720 employees including 10720 senior citizens," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley
Sonpeth, Palam, Sailu and Purna said in a tweet.
taluks. However, till today, farmers These employees had opted for contributory provident fund instead of pension
from two large taluks - Parbhani and option. Of the total beneficiaries, 24,595 are of LIC and 18,125 of five general
Jinthur, have not received even par- insurance companies -- GIC, New India Assurance Company Ltd, National Insur-
tial settlement of their dues. ance Company Ltd, Oriental Insurance Co Ltd, United India Insurance Co Ltd,
There are many gaps in the frame- an official statement said.
work of PMFBY which is being ex- "In order to mitigate the hardship of such employees of whom many have re-
ploited by insurance companies. The tired, Government has decided, as a welfare measure, to allow one more op-
government needs to plug these for portunity to employees of PSICs who joined service on or before June 28, 1995,
ensuring effective implementation to opt for the Pension scheme of their respective organizations, in lieu of Con-
of the scheme. tributory Provident Fund," Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar said.
The Insurance Times, April 2019 7