KATHMANDU: Nepali insurance companies are adopting the Nepali mortality rate to calculate premium from November. Insurance Board (IB) — the regulatory authority of insurance companies in Nepal — had directed them last week to adopt Nepali mortality table as soon as possible.

IB has asked all insurance companies to adopt Nepali mortality rate, spokesperson Shekhar Kumar Aryal said. “All life insurance companies should adopt it by November 16,” he said. IB developed the ‘Nepali Assured Lives Mortality Table 2009’ based on Nepali life expectancy and death rate this September.

The new mortality chart will reduce the rate of premium

of insurance policy because of improved mortality chart. Nepali insurance companies had been using the Indian

chart of 1975 AD to 1996 AD for calculating premium. “There

is great improvement in

the mortality rate,” Aryal

said, “The Nepali mortality chart has addressed those changes.”

According to UNICEF,

child mortality rate has reduced three-fold in the last 17 years. Adult mortality was 32 per

thousand in 2004 and

life expectancy 64 years in 2007. In 1975, Nepali life expectancy was below 50 years.

“There will be changes in the insurance premium after the application of Nepali mortality chart,” Aryal said. According to the Nepali mortality chart, the mortality rate of 1-15 year olds is 987 to 777 per 1,00,000. The infant— children below one year— mortality rate is 1,728.

Youths from 16 to 39 years have an average mortality rate of 1,412 per 1,00,000. The IB mortality chart indicates 56 year old people have a mortality rate of 10,356. The mortality chart has covered people ranging from infants to 99 year olds. Insurance premium is calculated on the basis of age and mortality rate.

According to IB, around 1.84 million Nepalis have insurance and the total premium collection from insurance companies was Rs 32.75 billion in September 2009.