Dominance of Indian Insurance Companies in Madhesh

Birgunj: Stakeholders have said that the insurance culture in Madhesh province is weak and Indian insurance companies are dominant, so Nepali insurance companies should be aware of this. Stakeholders made this suggestion during the interaction and discussion program on Nepal Insurance Authority with economic journalists organized by Nepal Insurance Authority Madhesh Regional Office in Birganj on Friday.In the event, Anup Tiwari, president of Nepal Journalist Federation Parsa, claimed that a single Indian insurance company is taking premiums of more than 1 crore rupees per month from Birganj.

“For this, a Nepali should be active in the market as a customer of an insurance company,” he said. “On the other hand, there is capital flight towards India through insurance.”He said that the large population of Madhesh still does not understand the importance of insurance. He also said “Farmers in the village are still ignorant about insurance and they still haven’t heard about beneficial insurance for farmers like agriculture, animal and crop insurance”.Journalist Maheshchandra Gautam said that even though more consumers are benefiting from non-life insurance than life insurance, even the educated class is ignorant about this insurance. He suggested that non-life insurance should also be effectively extended to the public like life insurance.

Journalist Niraj Pithakote, the representative of Economic Journalist Society Parsa, said that it is necessary to end the practice of looking at life insurance only with death and life.Kusum Sharma, Head of Insurance Authority Madhesh Province office, said that the condition of insurance literacy in Madhesh province is weak compared to other provinces.Anish Timalsena, Assistant Director of Regional Office of the Authority, said that there are currently 123 branches and 71 sub-branches of life insurance in Madhesh province and 468 employees are employed in the three branches.

Similarly, 94 branches, 23 sub-branches and 3 branches of Non-Life Insurance in the province have given employment to 403 people. He said that when 2 lakh 15 thousand 226 non-life insurance articles were issued throughout Madhesh province in the year 2079-080, insurance fee of 2 billion 47 Crore 10 lakh 79 thousand rupees was collected.         He said that in the same year, when 574 thousand 412 life insurance articles were issued, 13 billion 15 million 96 lakh 98 thousand rupees were collected as insurance fees.He said that it is welcome that the government of Madhesh state in this year’s budget should allocate 200 million rupees for agriculture and livestock insurance of advanced breeds, accident insurance of 10 lakh rupees for civil servants and disaster risk insurance of 2 lakh rupees for every citizen.