Wednesday, January 16, 2013


Tax violation notices served on Reliance Life, Sahara Life, other insurers 


New Delhi: Eight private insurance companies, including Reliance Life and Sahara India Life have been served show-cause notices by the Revenue department for alleged tax violation, Parliament was informed today.
The other insurance companies on which the Tax department has served show-cause notices are Aviva Life, DLF Pramerica Life, Sri Ram Life, IFFCO-TOKIO General Insurance, Apollo DKV and Bharat Reinsurance.
This was stated by Minister of State for Finance S S Palanimanickam in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha. Out of the eight companies, Reliance Life, DLF Pramerica, IFFCO TOKIO General and Bharat Reinsurance have submitted their replies to the government, he said.
Palanimanickam said: "In cases where the companies have submitted the reply, a personal hearing will be held and adjudication orders (will be) passed".
In cases wherein reply is yet to be submitted, the Minister said, personal hearings will be conducted after receipt of the replies of the companies.

LIC's record of paying claims better than pvt insurers: IRDA 


New Delhi: Life Insurance Company (LIC) has better record of paying death claims than that of private life insurers, said regulator IRDA in its latest report.
"The claim settlement ratio of LIC appeared to be better than that of the private life insurers", said Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) in its annual report 2011-12.
While LIC is the only life insurance company, there are about two dozen companies in the private sector which provide life cover.
According to the report, LIC has settled 97.42 per cent cases relating to death claims during 2011-12 compared to 89.34 per cent by private sector companies. The industry average worked out to be 96.26 per cent.
"Settlement ratio of LIC increased to 97.42 per cent during the year 2011-12 when compared to 97.03 per cent during the previous year," it said, adding that private insurers repudiated higher number of claims as compared to LIC.
On the positive side, settlement ratio of private insurers improved during the year to 89.34 per cent from 86.04 per cent in the previous year.
As far as industry is concerned, the settlement ratio increased marginally to 96.26 per cent in 2011-12 from 95.58 per cent a year ago.
LIC had 70 per cent market share in 2011-12 in the life insurance industry, while the rest is with 23 private sector players.