Kathmandu, June 4

The Coronavirus Insurance Policy that was included in the budget for fiscal 2020-21 has been put off until further notice.

As the number of people being infected by the pandemic has risen sharply, insurance companies are set to close their coronavirus insurance policies from tomorrow.

The non-life insurance companies have decided not to sell the policy, estimating that the amount that will have to be paid in claims will be very high and profits very low.

Chunky Chhetri, general secretary of Nepal Insurance Association — an association of non-life insurance companies — said a proposal had been sent to the Insurance Board to suspend the policy from tomorrow.

“The board has agreed to the association's proposal,” said Raju Raman Poudel, executive director of IB. Poudel added that after the board received the association's proposal, it decided not to go against it and asked them to do the needful.

“The government has addressed the coronavirus insurance provision in the upcoming budget, but we have not been able to get a concrete decision on the matter," he said. "We will wait for the Ministry of Finance's instruction.

Till then the policy will remain suspended.”

Poudel added that the board would change the policy modality as per international practices at the instance of the finance ministry.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on June 5, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.