Deepender Deswal/ Tribune News Service

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Insurance companies
across the country earned a whopping Rs. 15,795 crore as profit in two years
from the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), according to a reply
received under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

While the farmers’ wait for increase in income
continues, the profit of insurance firms increased by one-and-a-half times in
just one year of the introduction of the PMFBY.

The insurance firms
posted a profit of Rs. 9,335.62 crore in 2017-18 – a robust growth of 44.52 per
cent compared to the previous year’s (2016-17) profit of Rs 6,459.64 crore in
the country.

Information received from the Union agriculture
ministry by RTI activist P.P. Kapoor revealed that 11 insurance firms,
including the government-owned Agriculture Insurance Company of India (AIC),
earned a total of Rs. 15,795.26 crore in the first two years of the PMFBY. The
RTI reply disclosed that the insurance firms got a gross premium of Rs.
22,362.11 crore and paid an insurance claim of Rs. 15,902.47 crore to
3,01,26,403 farmers in 2016-17.

Similarly, these firms disbursed claims of Rs.
15,710.25 crore against a premium of Rs. 25,045.87 crore to 1,26,01,048
farmers. The RTI reply, however, added that about Rs. 512 crore approved
insurance claims are yet to be paid, while a majority of rabi crop claims are yet to be estimated/approved.

Kapoor, who analysed the data, said the insurance
firms earned to the tune of Rs. 530.30 crore per month in 2016-17, which rose
to approximately Rs. 778 crore per month the following year. Kapoor expressed
surprise that while the number of insured farmers has gone down, the profits of
the insurance firms have increased significantly. Public sector firm AIC earned
Rs. 2,610.60 crore in 2016-17, which was down to Rs. 528 crore the following
year. Curiously, the AIC, which insured 2,46,83,612 farmers in 21 states in
2016-17, lost about one crore farmers as it insured only about 1.5 crore the
following year. Kapoor alleged that the public sector’s declining number
indicated the growing clout of private insurance firms.

The data indicated that the number of insured farmers
too dropped in the second year – 5,72,17,159 farmers were insured in 2016-17
against  4,87,70,515 farmers in 2017-18 —
a decline of 84,46,644 farmers. Devender Sharma, an agriculture expert, said
this is an excellent scheme to earn profit for the insurance firms. “These are
the new arhtiyas who
need not make any financial investment and earn massive profits.”

Bharatiya Kisan union leader Gurnam Charuni alleged
that this “flawed policy” has been framed intentionally to let insurance firms
earn profits at the cost of farmers. “The farmers being called beneficiaries
have not got the insurance amount at all. Because most of them are loanee
farmers, banks deduct the money a farmer gets for insurance cover against the
loan as soon as it arrives.”

The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana is a
government-sponsored crop insurance scheme that primarily aims to provide
insurance coverage and financial support to farmers in the event of failure of
any of the notified crops as a result of natural calamities, pests and
diseases.

This <a href="https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/haryana/firms-earned-rs-15-795-crore-in-2-years-of-fasal-bima-yojana/682796.html">article</a> was published in The Tribune on November 13, 2018.

Insurance firms earn 15,795 crores in 2 years

୨ ବର୍ଷରେ ବୀମା କମ୍ପାନୀଗୁଡ଼ିକର ରୋଜଗାର ୧୫,୭୯୫ କୋଟି

Mumbai

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Insurance firms earn 15,795 crores in 2 years

A Right to Information query indicates a huge jump in the profits of crop insurers in a short time

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