Crop insurance claims worth around Rs 2,761.10 crore under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) were pending till 2021-22, with maximum pendency of claims in Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Gujarat, Parliament was informed on Tuesday.

The admissible claims under the PMFBY are generally paid by the concerned insurance companies within two months of completion of harvesting period and one month of notification for invoking the risks of prevented sowing, mid-season adversity and post harvest losses.

It is also subject to receipt of a total share of premium subsidy from the concerned government within time. 

'However, settlement of few claims in some states got delayed due to reasons like delayed transmission of yield data; late release of their share in premium subsidy, yield-related disputes between insurance companies and states...,' Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, in his written reply to the Lok Sabha, said. 

As per the data placed by the minister, about Rs 2,761.10 crore claims under the PMFBY were pending till 2021-22 crop year (July-June). 

Out of the pendency of claims, the maximum was in Rajasthan (Rs 1,387.34 crore), followed by Maharashtra (Rs 336.22 crore), Gujarat (Rs 258.87 crore), Karnataka (Rs 132.25 crore) and Jharkhand (Rs 128.24 crore), the data showed.

The minister said that all the major work relating to the assessment of crop yield/crop loss for calculation of admissible claims are being performed by the concerned state government or joint committee of state government officials and concerned insurance companies.

However, during implementation of the PMFBY, some complaints against insurance companies about non-payment and delayed payment of claims etc, have been received in the past in the country, he said, and added, 'Most of the complaints have been suitably addressed!' To ensure timely settlement of claims to farmers, Tomar said the government has released the central share of subsidy for the period Kharif 2018 to Rabi 2020-21, by delinking the same with the states' share of subsidy.

Insurance companies have disbursed claims to the tune Rs 209.57 crore on pro-rata basis, benefitting around 4.82 lakh farmers throughout the country, Further in Jharkhand, with the intervention of the central government, an amount of Rs 764 crore has been disbursed for Kharif 2018 to Rabi 2019-20, he added.

The Minister further said the department has been regularly monitoring the functioning of insurance companies, including timely settlement of claims through weekly video conferences of all stakeholders, one to one meeting as well as National Review Conferences.

To more rigorously monitor claim disbursal process, an end-to-end module by the name of 'Digiclaim Module' has been operationalized for payment of claims from Kharif 2022 onwards

It involves integration of National Crop Insurance Portal (NCIP) with PFMS and the accounting system of Insurance Companies to provide timely and transparent processing of all claims.

Various innovative technologies are also adopted to increase the timeliness for flow of requisite information/data amongst stakeholders, he added.

Source - https://www.deccanherald.com