Kathmandu. The Professional Insurance Agents Association of Nepal has expressed concern that the Insurance Regulations 2081, recently approved by the Council of Ministers, will destroy the life insurance business along with the agent profession.
The previous Insurance Regulations 2049 have been repealed with the approval of the new regulations by the Council of Ministers on Magh 28. After the Insurance Act 2079 BS came into force, new regulations have been issued to implement the provisions of the act.
At a press conference organized by the association on Friday, President Kedarnath Adhikari objected to the inclusion of some provisions in the regulations in a suspicious manner that were not mentioned in the draft made public for discussion. He said that some provisions have been included in the regulations with the intention of making agents a profession.
The association has expressed serious objection to the provision that renewal of old insurance policies should be mandatory for renewal of insurance agent licenses, determining agent incentives based on the percentage of insurance policy renewal, and getting a discount on insurance premiums in cases where the insured is directly insured.
‘Although non-life insurance is mandatory, life insurance is not mandatory,’ said Chairman Adhikari. In such a situation, it is foolish to say that the life insurance business can be run by ignoring agents who go door to door to create awareness about insurance. This is not possible in the current situation.
General Secretary of the association Om Bahadur Khatri said that the role of agents cannot be achieved without the role of agents. He suggested that policymakers learn from the events of 2016 in Japan about the state of the life insurance business. He said, “In 2016, when agents were removed, the number of insurance policies decreased significantly, and later agents were hired.”
The association had objected to some provisions of the draft regulation even before its issuance and had drawn the attention of the Nepal Insurance Authority and the Ministry of Finance. Despite the association’s initiatives, the association’s leadership has also been in trouble after the regulation was implemented with the aim of minimizing the role of agents.
