INSURANCE AND PENSIONS

Transcription

1 INSURANCE AND PENSIONS FICCI has been keenly involved in development of this sector. Before privatization of the sector, FICCI had set up a Multilateral Insurance Working Group (MIWG) which served as a forum to the prospective Insurance Companies, both domestic and overseas to facilitate continuing dialogue between Government, Insurance Regulatory Authority and Public Sector Companies. MIWG also made valuable contribution in formulation of rules and regulations for this sector. After privatisation. To move towards a vibrant and strong sector, FICCI constituted a committee on Insurance and Pensions sector which was headed by the Chairman, LIC of India- the largest insurer in India. The aim of the committee was to focus on the following issues: To deliberate on the policy issues having a bearing on the performance of the sector and suggest ways and means which help in aiding the industry. Develop a better synergistic relationship between government and industry for identifying the major irritants in the performance of the sector and working towards creating an enabling environment for the growth of the sector. Constitute task forces to take up some important issues separately. FICCI s Insurance and Pensions committee meets quarterly on various policy issues concerning the industry. Many a times the committee has been the voice and the forum to place the issues in front of the government and the regulator and bring about suitable changes in the economic and regulatory framework. We have deliberated on various policy issues. In a nut shell: 1. Taxation issues pre and post- budget including Fringe Benefit Tax and EET. Infact FICCI was instrumental in changes that were announced in current years budget related to FBT. 2. Capital Issues- Apart from enhancing FDI, we have also been talking about need to relook at current K adequacy and solvency margin. 3. Have deliberated in detail on the Consultation paper on Revision of the Insurance Act, 1938 and the IRDA Act, 1999 in our committee meetings and have submitted the report to the Government. 4. Pension Reforms- Starting from the year 2000 when we had contributed to the IRDA report on Pension Reforms in the "Unorganised Sector" which was submitted to the Finance Minister and appeared before the Standing Committee on Finance in the year 2005 till now when we submitted a report to PFRDA post PFRDA Bill. 5. Did substantive work on Detariffication and met IRDA which resulted in getting the roadmap from the regulator. 1

2 6. Prepared a report for examining the practice of special discount as also the remuneration structure of Insurance brokers and Insurance agents in general Insurance business 7. Entry strategy for Reinsurance companies Some of the details of our work is given below: Under this committee various sub-groups were created for Pensions, Detariffication and Reinsurance. Working for the industry.. Pensions-The most vibrant sector: FICCI has been working for Pension reforms since the year We started with creating a special task force on the pension sector reforms to support the Government of India s endeavour to move towards a new Pensions Regime. The objective of the task force was to outline a roadmap for pension sector reforms in India and subsequently, give their recommendations to the Government of India. FICCI's Task Force on Pensions contributed to the IRDA report on Pension Reforms in the "Unorganised Sector" which was submitted to the Finance Minister in the year Various representations on Pensions were also made to Mr Vinod Rai and Ms Vineeta Rai. In the first meeting of FICCI s Insurance and Pensions committee held on 10 th March, 2005, priority on the agenda was Roadmap for Pension reforms. A sub-group of experts was created to ponder over this issue. This sub-group met Mr D Swarup, Chairman, PFRDA almost every month. FICCI was also requested to appear before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance for examination on the provisions of the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Bill 2005 on 13th June, The delegation was led by Mr S V Mony, Secretary-General, Life Insurance Council, Mrs Shikha Sharma, Co-Chair, FICCI s Insurance and Pensions Committee & CEO, ICICI Pru Life Insurance Co Ltd and Mr N N Joshi, Advisor, FICCI s Insurance and Pensions Committee & Chief Representative, ING Insurance International. The presentation submitted to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance was prepared in consultation with Mr D Swarup, Chairman, PFRDA. Lot of effort, energy and fruitful time was invested in terms of meetings of FICCI s Sub-group on Pensions with the regulator. FICCI s Expert group on Pensions also submitted a paper to PFRDA after the PFRDA Bill came into the picture. To imitate some international experiences worldwide, the 2

3 Expert group met on 6 th December, 2005 and subsequently on 2 nd January, 2006 and later submitted the paper to PFRDA. Detariffication-A Burning issue: FICCI had constituted a sub-group on Detariffication under the aegis of FICCI s Insurance and Pensions committee. Mr H F Khorakiwala, Vice President, FICCI and Chairman, Wockhardt Ltd was the convener of the sub-group on Detariffication. The subgroup was co-chaired by Mr Kamesh Goyal, Co-Chairman, Insurance and Pensions Committee of FICCI and CEO, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Co Ltd. The Group comprised of almost all key stakeholders i.e. the major insurers, brokers, underwriters and corporates. The first meeting of subgroup on Detariffication was on 2 nd May 2005 in Mumbai. Aim of the meeting was to have a consensus view of the stakeholders of the Industry on the issue of detariffication and then decide on a strategy to achieve the desired result. The sub-group later met Mr C S Rao, Chairman, IRDA on 21 st June, 2005 in Hyderabad. In the meeting it was decided that, IRDA would circulate papers to all the insurance companies (both public and private) containing essential components which should be in place before detariffication to enable the industry to move towards this in a smooth way. Reinsurance: FICCI constituted a` Taskforce on Reinsurance to lay down a roadmap for entry strategy of foreign Reinsurance companies. Taskforce met on 2 nd June, 2004 and 9 th July, 2004 under the able Chairmanship of Mr P B Ramanujam, the then Mg. Director, GIC of India. The final presentation was made at the 9 th Conference on Insurance in front of the regulator and other stakeholders of the industry. The presentation was later also submitted to Mr G C Chaturvedi, Jt. Secretary (Banking and Insurance), Ministry of Finance. Pre and Post budget meetings: FICI regularly seeks inputs from the members of the committee prior to the budget to be included in the FICCI s pre budget memorandum and holds discussion with the Finance Ministry on the relevance of these changes. After the budget, we interact with our members once again to have their views on the impact of announced changes. We discuss the issues of concern in our committee meetings and put forth to the Ministry of Finance through our post budget memorandum for instance FICCI had taken issues like FBT, EET and service tax for General and Life Insurers. In the service tax issue for general insurers, FICCI had we invited few of our members to make a presentation in front of the CBDT officials. Insurance (Amendment) Bill 3

4 As stated above, we have done substantive work for the Insurance (Amendment) Bill. We had internal discussions in the committee and the report was submitted to relevant authorities. Subsequently we organized a workshop on Consultation Paper on Revision of the Insurance Act, 1938 and the IRDA Act, 1999 to have threadbare discussion on the Amendment Bill on 25 th August, 2003 with Mr C S Rao, Chairman, IRDA, Mr Arun Jaitley, the then Hon'ble Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Law and Justice and Mr. T.K Vishwanathan, the then Member Secretary, Law Commission and Secretary to Govt. of India. The workshop had participation from all the stakeholders like the industry, government and the regulator. After the report of the KPN Narasimhan committee, at the behest of Mr C S Rao, Chairman, IRDA, FICCI once again organized a seminar in association with the Life Insurance Council on Amendments to the Insurance Act on 6 th February, Discussions helped IRDA take a final view on the Insurance Laws. Strengthening Micro Health Insurance Units for the Poor in India FICCI in collaboration with Erasmus University and University of Cologne is implementing a project on Strengthening Micro Health Insurance Units for the Poor in India under the European Union Cross Cultural Programme Project. We have tied up with Karuna Trust (Karnataka), Yeshasvini Trust(Karnataka), People s Mutual in DHAN Foundation (Tamil Nadu), Voluntary Health Services (Tamil Nadu), NIDAN (Bihar), Uplift Health Network (Maharashtra) and BAIF (Maharashtra) for this project. We have conducted the largest household survey in seven locations (partner schemes in the project) in India covering 4,500 households, key informant interviews, focus group discussion and a literature survey. The analysis which is under the process will lead to a set of policy recommendations for politicians and regulatory authorities, as well as specific recommendations on administrative-managerial issues for managers of each participating microinsurance unit. FICCI organized a workshop on IRDA s concept paper on Need for Developing Micro insurance in India in February, The discussions revolved around the issue of restriction of micro insurance to the partner agent model, lack of product flexibility and the requirement to limit business relations to a single insurer. Our project also submitted a position paper on 7 th June, 2005 to the Parliamentary Committee on Public Undertakings on Health Insurance. Under the project, we also organized a month long Cross Cultural Study Group wherein 30 post graduate students (10 from BIMTECH, 10 from Erasmus University and 10 from Cologne University) conducted field research on micro health insurance units in 4

5 India and were involved in analysis of data collected through the household survey (still under the process). The results of the case studies on Karuna Trust and Yeshasvini Trust conducted by us will be published in 2006 in the CGAP/ ILO micro insurance working group series Good and Bad practices in micro insurance. Surveys: FICCI comes out with an annual survey on the State of the Indian Insurance Sector. The survey seeks to elicit information from Insurance Companies both public and private and related intermediaries and aims at analyzing the actual state of the market and the future roadmap. The survey report is submitted to IRDA, Ministry of Finance and other concerned Government agencies. Conferences and Seminars: FICCI organizes an annual conference on Insurance sector. Till now we have organized ten conferences. While the first four conferences focused on the need to privatize the sector and informed about the benefits that would accrue as a result, next five conferences emphasized on the need to develop a sound and sustainable Insurance Sector in India and have debated on Issues and Challenges facing the Insurance sector postprivatization. In the tenth year of the conference, time was to look back, analyse the achievements and set a path to enable the Indian Insurance companies to become globally competitive and expand their presence beyond the geographical boundaries of India. Our first venture in the area of Pensions was on th February, 2006 when FICCI organized a conference on Pension Reforms in India jointly with PFRDA. Aim was to discuss and debate the key issues of reforms specific to the Indian culture, of course based on various successful international models and integrating some of domestic capabilities and strengths in the emerging pensions system. FORTE FICCI and ING Insurance have jointly set up FORTE- a foundation of Research, Training and Education in Insurance in India. The Foundation aims at the growth of a vibrant insurance industry in the country and facilitate the development of a world class professionalism through research, training and education. Foundation also focuses on creation of excellence among people engaged in sale and service of insurance products and services and also create necessary consumer awareness about the insurance products. In a very short span of its existence, FORTE have taken major strides towards the development of the Indian Insurance Market. Some of the activities that FORTE have undertaken in the past are detailed as under: 5

6 Produced a documentary film on Insurance to generate awareness and educate the prospective buyers. The film is of 12 minutes duration on a digital format and was released on the FICCI s 7th International Conference on Insurance. Conducted a rural research study titled Rural Insurance : Issues, Challenges & Opportunities to gauge the potential and realities of the insurance market in rural areas. The highlights of the research were presented to the industry at FICCI International Conference on Insurance and the detailed report on the findings is published. Commissioned a research-based study for developing a broad-level Rural Distribution Strategy for the Insurance Sector. The study entails both Primary and Secondary Research and would evaluate the available rural distribution channels and identify new channels that can be attempted and developed. Publishing a quarterly FORTE Insurance Journal. Till now, following issues have been published: o Pensions o Emerging Insurance Markets in Rural India o Consumer Awareness o Bancassurance o Health Insurance o Distribution o Micro health insurance 6