Plea To Check Pvt Insurers & #8217; Unethical Practices

General insurance officers have asked the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) and other authorities concerned to take punitive action against private general insurance companies found violating the Tariff Advisory Committee (TAC) rules.

According to P P Mohanan, the general secretary of the Kerala unit of the General Insurance Officers' All India Association (GIOAOA), private insurers who are reluctant to give motor insurance are using all sorts of unethical methods to grab business from public sector insurers.

Recently, a fire insurance policy of a public sector unit (PSU) in Kerala was awarded to a private general insurance company as the latter had quoted a premium which was significantly lower than the prescribed TAC premium rate.

The PSU insurer had also complained against this to the Irda . In such cases even after tariff violation was proved, the fine imposed on the erring companies were nominal. Hence it does not act as a deterrent because of which the tariff violation continues.

Mohanan appealed to the four public sector insurance companies to arrive on a tacit understanding with regard to the premium so as to avoid cut-throat competition among themselves.

The Kerala state conference of the General Insurance Officers' All India Association (GIOAOA) held at Kochi last Saturday appealed to the authorities to cancel the decision to introduce third-party administrators (TPA) for settling Mediclaim policies.

According to a press release by GIOAOA, the Mediclaim insurance premium has been increased by six per cent for giving service charges to the TPAs.

Moreover, delay caused in settling the Mediclaim by these intermediaries has been tarnishing the image of the four public sector insurance companies.

The conference also appealed to the General Insurance Public Sector Association to start negotiations on wage-revision of employees. The conference elected M P Jairam as the state president and P P Mohanan as state general secretary.