This delay, said insurers, will affect issuance of new policies on time. Going by the existing practice, the government first endorses the rate, following which the Insurance Board (IB) makes the new rates effective. Companies are allowed to pursue the new tariff only after they get the nod from IB.
So far, the tariff Advisory Committee of IB has finalized the rates, jacking up the premium cost by about three-fold for the transporters. “However, the government has not yet made the new rates applicable,” said an insurer.
With just two days to go, he stated that even if the government hurried now, the companies will not be able to provide insurance cover to all vehicles by Monday, when the new TPI program comes into effect.
For the program to get going, the insurance companies would need to amend or issue new policies to a total of 850,614 vehicles. Those include 19,685 buses, 7,497 mini buses, 40,437 trucks and tankers and 112,300 cars, sports utility vehicles and vans, among others.
Insurers said issuing policies to all of them on a day was simply impossible. From August 17, the government, on the other hand, has made production of TPI policy mandatory for the registration and renewal of vehicles in a bid to ensure the enforcement of the program.
Citing the problem over issuance of policy, transporters have already demanded the government to defer the new TPI implementation date through public announcement. If not, they have threatened to bring the transportation services to a grinding halt from Monday.
“We have already agreed to the new premium rates. But if we are not provided with the insurance policy, how can we operate?” wondered Rajendra Shrestha, general secretary of Nepal Truck and Tanker Entrepreneurs´ Federation (NTTEF).
Transporters argued that operating vehicles without the new insurance cover would be a blunder because they would neither have the insurance coverage nor would they be able to escape with low compensation if some misfortune happened.
“Since the government has announced the amount publicly, people will not let us go,” said Shrestha.
Like transporters, insurers also suggest the government to defer the date of enforcement.
Meanwhile, transporters have also demanded the government to include chief district officers (CDOs) in the process of compensating the road accident victims. They said they wanted the CDOs to involve in the process given the problems that they face in getting the compensation amount released on time from the companies.
“The government´s announcement has given a message that the victims will be compensated instantly, whereas companies take long duration, sometimes as much as a year, to release the amount,” stated Shrestha. With the involvement of CDOs the process, transporters hope that the insurance companies might speed up their compensation process.
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