August 24: General insurance companies have paid 70 percent of the total claim amount after the devastating earthquake of the last year as per the Insurance Board (IB). The percentage of claim amount has been made by 15 general insurance companies operating in Nepal by the end of the last FY. “The settlement of 70 percent of the total insurance claim amount within a year is satisfactory,” said Raju Raman Poudel, Director of IB. The claim amount equivalents 91 percent of the total number of claims received by the general insurance companies. The general insurance companies received a total of 17,840 claims after the earthquake among which 16,286 claims were verified for payment. 

According to the IB statistics, insurance companies received claims for the compensation worth Rs 16.17 billion under which they have paid Rs 11.75 billion by the end of the last FY. Moreover, the board informed that the insurance companies received Rs 6.79 billion compensation due from the claim amount paid from the re-insurance companies during the period.   

The board exemplify that the insurance companies has paid the claim amount under various headings. The highest amount of insurance claim has been paid under fire insurance coverage which was Rs 7.79 billion. Similarly, Rs 170.8 million has been paid under vehicle insurance claims followed by engineering claims of Rs 630 million. Likewise, Rs 3.46 billion has been paid under miscellaneous heading. During the period, the lowest claim amount is paid under marine insurance of Rs 400,000.

Although insurance companies have paid insurance claim amount to the majority of policy holders, big and complicated insurance claims are still waiting to be settled. The board clarified that among the total number of insurance claim made 999 claims submitted at insurance companies are big, controversial and complicated. The companies have not been able to receive survey reports of these claims till date. These big companies include apartments, shopping malls and hydropower companies. “The big companies’ claim are bit complicated, thus will be settled after some times,” said Poudel. Among the total claims received by the insurance companies, Himalayan General Insurance Company received the highest amount of the claims of Rs 3.73 billion whereas Rastriya Beema Sanstha received the insurance claim of the least amount. Rastriya Beema Sanstha received a total number of 166 claims for Rs 72.2 million.