Non-life insurance sector needs to come to non-tariff market

Ahmed Saifuddin Chowdhury :
There was a time when people had a negative view of insurance. Today that is changing exponentially. Now people insure for their own needs. Insurance Development and Regulatory (IDRA) is working for the development of this sector. The insurance sector in GDP is very small. The sector is continuing to improve gradually through the insurance regulatory authorities.
Besides, there is still some unhealthy competition in the insurance sector. We should get out of it. To get out of this unhealthy competition, it is needed to include the private insurance sector in the non-tariff market. Each of us will do business according to our merits.
Now our foreign reinsurance facility is half or 50 per cent. There is also a target mark where it exceeds BDT 400 crore for Fire, BDT 100 crore for Marine-Cargo, BDT 30 crore for Marine-Hull, and BDT 20 crore for other/miscellaneous coverage, I can bring rates from abroad. If it is a non-tariff market, I can get rates from the market on any amount of money. Without tariffs, unhealthy competition wills also toper off. So under the open market economy, the rates of non-life insurance should not be bounded by tariff but need to be kept open. For that, insured gets the opportunity to take insurance coverage at low premium rates. And for that competitive price we can provide better services to the insured in respect of the world underwriting aspect.
Besides, we have to increase grace period to 1 month to deposit the premium, adapting the rules because we have to provide benefits to our customers. If no one pays the premium even after one month, he may be charged for subsequent working days as penalty. If these two things like non-tariff market and 1 month grace time for premium deposit are given, the insurance sector will come to an orderly condition. As a result, I strongly believe that one day the insurance sector will play a vital role in the GDP.

(The writer is Chief Executive Officer, Bangladesh General Insurance Company Ltd).