TN floods: ICICI Lombard gets Rs 50 cr motor insurance claims

Mumbai, Dec 17: ICICI Lombard General Insurance today said it has received around 5,000 motor insurance claims valued at more than Rs 50 crore post floods in Chennai and other parts of Tamil Nadu.

"The industry has received claims under motor insurance of around Rs 1,000 crore post Tamil Nadu floods. At ICICI Lombard, we have received around 5,000 claims under motor insurance category valued at more than Rs 50 crore," the company's Chief-Underwriting, Claims and Reinsurance, Sanjay Datta, said here.

"On property insurance front, the industry is likely to have received claims valued at around Rs 2,000 crore post Tamil Nadu floods," he added.

He was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the release of a report by the company. According to the report, health insurance premium grew by 17 per cent in the past one year, mainly due to awareness generated by Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY), launched in early 2015.

The premium of health insurance schemes increased to Rs 20,443 crore in 2014-15 from Rs 17,495 a year ago, a growth of 17 per cent.

In the first half of the current fiscal, health insurance premium shot up to Rs 12,055 crore, a rise of 19 per cent over the year-ago period's Rs 10,159 crore. As of now, 9.25 crore people in the country have been brought under the fold of PMSBY, ICICI Lombard said.

"PMSBY, which is anchored by the government, has helped increase awareness about health insurance in the country," Datta said.

"Catastrophic events like the recent Tamil Nadu floods have resulted in increasing awareness about health and other insurance covers, including motor insurance," he added.

Insurers have been able to bring down medical inflation (cost of procedures and treatment) to half within the past couple of years, the report said.

Medical inflation, which was hovering at 9.4 per cent in 2012-13, came down to 6.5 per cent in 2013-14 and further to 5.5 per cent in 2014-15, the report added.

PTI