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Govt penalizes insurers for delay in settling crop insurance claims
News
- Government has proposed new guidelines for Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna (PMFBY) to be implemented from upcoming Rabi season
- Need for renewed guidelines
- Decline in enrollment of farmers under the scheme which is down by 15% from its inception
- Delay in claim settlement to farmers by insurance companies
- Delay by States, in giving their due share of premium
- Guidelines for insurance firm
- Insurance firms to pay farmers 12% penal interest for delayed claim settlement
- Insurance firms can be removed from scheme for non-performance
- Each insurance company will have to mandatorily spend 0.5% of gross premium per person for publicity and awareness of the scheme
- Guidelines for state government
- 12% penalty for state government for delay in paying premium, subsidy share to the firms
- Guidelines for farmers
- Revamped scheme will now cover a wider variety of risks, such as hailstorms, cloudbursts and cases of fire destroying crops
- Farmers will also get more time to inform the government about individual losses—from 48 hours earlier to 72 hours after crop damage.