Rural Postal Life Insurance (PLI) bonus enhanced

Chandigarh, Jun 20 (UNI) The Department of Posts has decided to enhance Rural Postal Life Insurance (PLI) bonus for its most poular scheme 'Endowment Assurance' (EA).

Bonus has been increased from Rs 50 to Rs 55 for every Rs 1000 of sum assured, if the policy term exceeds 10 years, Punjab Chief Postmaster General Prithvi Raj Kumar said today.

He said the bonus has been enhanced from Rs 50 to 52 for every Rs 1000, if the policy term was up to ten years.

''Thus an insurant who is having a EA Policy of Rs one lakh, will now be vested with a bonus of Rs 5500 a year (as against Rs 5000 earlier), if the policy term exceeds 10 years. It will be vested with a bonus of Rs 5200 if the policy term is 10 years,'' he added.

Enhancement of bonus, he said, made Rural PLI more attractive an option as comapred to traditional insurers who covered the life risk of individual insurants udner Endowment Assurance Scheme.

''Whereas the traditional insurers give bonus in a range of Rs 45 to Rs 50 for every Rs 1000 of sum assured, the customers of Rural PLI get a better return,'' Mr Kumar said.

This, he said, had been made possible because the strength of Rural PLI life was in utilisation of the massive network of more than 1.55 lakh Post Offices in the country. Premium is collected through the counters of these Post Offices and duly accounted.

''This keeps the operational cost of Rural PLI low as compared to other insurance companies.'' Rural PLI polices were procured through the Gramin Dak Sewaks of the Department of Posts and a moderate incentive was paid to them in the year of procurement.

''Other insurance companies spend a handsome portion of their premium earnings as comission to their agents. They also pay a substantial amount to their agents for colelction of premium in subsequent years. This raises their cost of operation, which in turn is passsed on to the cutomers,'' he said.

Rural PLI on the other hand passed on the benefits of low cost of operation to the customers in the form of higher bonus rates and lower premium rates, Mr Kumar said.

''Today, the number of live policies in Rural PLI comes to nearly over 1,22,000 in Punjab and Chandigarh. The sum assured so far is Rs 874 crores,'' he disclosed.

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