KATHMANDU, AUGUST 2

Nepali Congress lawmaker Dila Sangroula today raised the issue of non-payment of COVID-19 insurance to the insurance claimants.

Speaking during special hour in the House of Representatives today, she said non-life insurance companies that had insured people against the COV- ID-19 pandemic had not settled claims worth Rs 10.52 billion. Insurance companies have stopped paying insurance amount to beneficiaries since last August.

Sangroula said insurance companies had failed to make payments to insurers mainly because the government, which was the reinsurer, had not made funds available to insurance companies to the extent the government had pledged. 'I urge the government to devise a way to immediately pay insurers across the nation,' Sangroula said.

Information Officer of Insurance Board Nirmal Adhikari said standards developed by the government stated that the government would take responsibility of making payments to COV- ID-19 insurers for more than Rs 3.5 billion, but the government had not made payments yet.

Insurance companies and reinsurers have made payments to the extent they were responsible, but the government has not done its bit, Adhikari said. He added that Insurance Board office bearers had discussed the issue with the finance ministry and the latter had assured the Board that the government would make available committed funds to insurance companies. 'But so far, the government has not done so,' Adhikari added. According to Insurance Board, 20 insurance companies needed to pay to 162,346 insurers whose claim amount was more than 15 billion rupees. A total of 111,899 claimants have not received COVID insurance payments.

A version of this article appears in the print on August 3, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.