Businesses and individuals could soon be allowed to pay for their insurance over short periods under the “No Premium, No Cover” Policy which took effect in April.
The Insurance Commission is considering this as part of major recommendations by the Stakeholder Advisory Committee for Implementation of the “Cash and Carry” Insurance Policy. The committee set up to fashion out the best way of implementing the policy has presented its report to the commission.
Larry Jiagge, Chairman of the Committee explains to JOY BUSINESS, the onus lies on the Commission to accept their recommendations.
“One of the major things we addressed is to make it possible for people to take short period programmes. That is if you are not able to pay upfront, you can ask for 3-months cover where you pay the appropriate premium quarterly and that will also apply to the large premium payers.
“Such short period policies however end up being more expensive than the annual one. The increase may not be significant but it is important people recognize this. So if it is possible to pay the premium upfront for the whole year you end up saving some money than to arrange a short period cover,” he said.
He added that they have also proposed to the Commission, an extension of the strict timelines among other recommendations for the smooth and effective implementation of the policy.
“We also identified the issue of weekend payment of premiums, because brokers for example have to pay premiums 24 hours after receipt of payment from their clients. We realized that there will be an implementation problem with the 24 hour directive as far as weekends are concerned.
“So if I receive the premium around 4:30pm on Friday, I could not possibly remit the insurance company by end of Friday because quite a number of insurance companies close by 4:00 – 4:30pm. Also when transfers are made in payment, we tried to address what we will call effective payment of premium. Is it when the transfer is made or evidence of the payment is made available to the insurance company?” he quizzed.
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