Despite the larger volume of insurance policies under operation with Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) vis-à-vis its private sector counterparts, there are more complaints received by the insurance ombudsman here against private sector companies than LIC.
In the non-life category, dominated by public sector companies, more complaints have been received against them than private companies. The larger number of complaints against public sector companies in the non-life segment may be explained by the larger number of policies under operation with them, said insurance ombudsman P. K. Vijayakumar here on Tuesday.
Figures released by the office of the ombudsman here showed that 83 complaints had been received against LIC of India up to August this financial year whereas the number of complaints against private life insurers stood at 144. There were 203 complaints against LIC during 2014-15 compared to the 409 complaints against private insurers during the financial year.
In the non-life segment, 111 complaints have been received against public sector insurers up to August this financial year. The number of complaints against private insurers in the segment during the period stood at 78. During the last financial year, there were 241 complaints against the PSU insurers whereas the number of complaints against private insurers was 145.
Mr. Vijayakumar said that there were a total of 40 crore life insurance policies in operation. Of these, 35 crore were with LIC. In the non-life segment, there are around 15 crore policies, about six crore being with public sector insurers.
Meanwhile, the insurance ombudsman in Kochi has disposed of a total of 596 life and non-life insurance complaints up to August this year.
Figures showed that 309 of these complaints related to life insurance policies and 287 to non-life insurance policies. During 2015-16, the number of cases disposed of stood at 1,698. Of these, 1,064 related to life insurance policies and 634 to non-life insurance policies.
The disposal ratio stands at an average of 83.4 8 as on August 31 this year, combining complaints regarding both life and non-life insurance policies.
The ombudsman’s office in Kochi deals with complaints from Kerala and the Union Territories of Lakshwadeep, Mahe and a part of Punducherry.
