Travel Insurance companies told to revert 100% credit risk cover by IRDA
The travel agents can now take a deep breath, as according to the new policy by IRDA, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority, the travel insurance companies will now return 100% amount of the risk cover that the agents are supposed to pay. The risk cover, reverted earlier was 80%, though a 100% premium was paid by the agents, so in order to make the procedure beneficial for them, IRDA now announces that Insurance companies will revert 100% of the amount. The agents used to bear the remaining 20% of this amount themselves, through individual bank guarantees.
The President of TAAI, Travel Agents Association of India, Mr. Iqbal Mulla, met the officials of UIICL, United India Insurance Company Limited, and discussed the problem faced by the travel agents, and on comprehending the situation, the UIICL not only agreed for the 100% cover revert but also approved of a rate 1.30% and service tax, on any insured amount of more than Rs. 30 Crores. This has been a breaking achievement and joy for the travel agents.
For the efforts put in by Mulla, the president of TAFI, Travel Agents Federation of India, Mr. Ajay Prakash, has congratulated him and praised his efforts, as it will bring a lot of comfort to the agencies, according to him. He added, “While all this was happening in the country, I was at Macau for the TAFI Convention. However, I was constantly in touch with Mr Mulla via phone regarding the status of this issue. The efforts put in by him will definitely benefit the entire travel agent fraternity as getting a bank guarantee is not an easy task since it has serious cost implications for travel agents. This shows that when associations work in tandem, we can achieve great heights.”
The Chairman of the Western Region of TAAI, Mr. Jay Bhatia, also agreed and showed satisfaction at this new achievement, and considered this to be more beneficial for mid -sized agents, for whom paying the collateral money in individual banks was never an easy task. This new scheme, unequivocally, brought a lot of relief to the travel agents.