PMSBY: Non-Life Players Looking at Widening Coverage This Year

Non-life insurers are bullish about Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY) and have drawn up ambitious plans to bring in more people under the scheme whose claim ratio has shot up to around 100%.Insurers said the scheme has helped them create awareness about insurance and reach out to more people with a readily available database. PMSBY is a social security cover which is available at a nominal premium of Rs 12 per person per year and provides a cover of Rs 2,00,000 in case of accidental death or permanent full disability or Rs 1,00,000 in case of partial but permanent disability.The scheme was unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Kolkata on May 9 last year.The largest non-life insurer New India Assurance opened 1.5 crore accounts under the scheme last financial year and is looking at increasing the number of accounts by 20% this fiscal. 
 

"We have opened 1.5 crore accounts under the scheme and collected Rs 18 crore in premium during the year gone-by and the claim ratio was at 100%. Still, it has helped us a lot to create awareness on insurance," New India Assurance Chairman and Managing Director G Srinivasan told PTI. 
 

"During the current fiscal year, we are looking at clocking 20% growth in terms of opening accounts. At the same time, we are also aiming at renewing all the existing accounts," he added.
Kolkata-based National Insurance Company has taken a lead in opening the accounts under the scheme. 
 

"We have opened 3.3 crore accounts under the scheme last fiscal year, while the claim ratio was at around 100%" National Insurance Chairman and Managing Director Sanath Kumar said. 
 

"This year we are first looking at renewing all the existing accounts apart from adding more under the scheme. It will help us widen our reach," he said. 

Private sector non-life insurer ICICI Lombard has opened around 1 crore accounts under the scheme. 
 

"We opened around 1 crore accounts under the scheme last fiscal year and we are looking at having a similar number of accounts in the current fiscal too. "The only thing is that it has to be done through the banks we have partnered with," ICICI Lombard Chief, Underwriting and Claims, Sanjay Datta said, adding the company witnessed 100% claim ratio last year. 
 

According to government estimate, as many as 9.4 crore accounts were opened across the country and 4,000 claims settled so far, with a claim ratio of 100%. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will unveil a coffee table book on the scheme by General Insurance (PSU) Association (Gipsa), which comprises all the four state-owned non-life insurers, when he reviews the performance of the scheme in New Delhi on Monday.The book will display some successful case studies and show how the scheme has benefited the people in need, a finance ministry official said.