RTI data obtained by The Wire show that for the 2018 kharif season, total premium collected by companies amounted to Rs 20,747 crore while the claims paid totalled Rs 7,696 crore.
New Delhi: Insurance companies have missed the deadline to recognise and pay claims worth over Rs 5,000 crore made by farmers under the Centre’s Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) scheme, according to data obtained by The Wire through right to information (RTI) requests.
The pending insurance claims – which state governments have certified, but have not been approved by the companies yet – add up to a whopping Rs 5,171 crore and are for the recent kharif season, which ended in December 2018.
According to the PMFBY guidelines, the dues should be paid within two months from the end of harvest – which means the kharif 2018 claims should have been paid by February 2019 at the latest.
But 40% of the Rs 12,867 crore estimated claims remained unpaid as of May 10, 2019, according to data obtained from an RTI response by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare.
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