Decision on Jan Dhan life cover soon, says Sandhu

The government will shortly announce the life insurance cover to be provided to the new bank accounts being opened under the Prime Minister's Jan Dhan Yojana, a top finance ministry official said today.
The government is already providing Rs 1 lakh personal accident cover for each bank account being opened under the scheme and the cover is being provided by private sector non-life insurance company HDFC Ergo.
"The government is planning to provide a life insurance cover of Rs 30,000 under the scheme to all those who open their bank accounts as part of the ongoing inclusion scheme.
"This cover is to be provided by Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) which is also planning to launch more new products under the scheme," Financial Services Secretary GS Sandhu said while addressing annual general meeting of the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce.

However, Sandhu was quick to add that the life cover can be provided to only one person in a family under the scheme.
Later, talking to PTI, Sandhu said that it has not been decided yet as to who will pay the premium for the Rs 30,000 life cover.

On micro-insurance products to be provided under the scheme in the second phase of the programme, Sandhu said, "We want to promote micro-insurance which are non-existent today".
Micro-insurance product cover up to Rs 50,000 will be provided under the scheme at a small premium.
"Only 50 lakh people living are having micro-insurance products with them now, whereas our objective is to provide such products to 30 crore people," he said.

"As of now, life cover has been provided to 33 percent people and 15-16 percent people are having non-life insurance cover with them which shows the wide gap in coverage and hence our focus on insurance products to be provided under the scheme," Sandhu said.