“We have raised Rs.900  cr. subordinate debt in the form of  non secured (NCDs)  at 8.25 per cent  with a tenure of 10 year  and with a call option after 5 years. The response was  highly satisfying  as it has been oversubscribed by almost 200% of the issue size. We will only retain R900 crore . It augments our solvency by about 23 points,”said MN Sarma, CMD, UII.

Subhas Chander Garg, Economic Affairs Secretary immediately after the Budgetary announcement said the government will be completing merger of three public sector general insurers in FY 2018-19 and will list the new merged entity during the year.

“We don’t want four government owned general insurers competing each other. We would prefer two general insurance companies in the market. That means three of the public sector general insurance companies should merge first and then go for listing ,’’ said Ravi, Mittal, additional secretary,Ministry of Finance.

“We are now launching a flagship national health protection scheme to cover 10 crore poor and vulnerable families. This is approximately 50 crore beneficiaries, by providing them up to Rs 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation,” Jaitley said presenting the 2018-19 Union Budget. 

Apart from unveiling plans for Rs 5 lakh healthcare cover for 10 crore poor families for free,the Budget-2018 also announced providing other services like micro-insurance to Jan Dhan Bank Accounts holders which will help increase penetration of Insurance.  In the line of government’s ‘Ease of Living’ objective, the Government has encouraged Senior Citizens to buy health insurance by increasing tax exemption limit for the same under Section 80D from Rs 30, 000 to Rs 50, 000. 

Vijayan who is retiring in February 2018 considers improving insurance penetration as an unfinished agenda in his tenure. Considering there is less than 3 per cent penetration in India and almost 7 per cent globally, it indicates a huge potential for Insurance in the coming years.We have seen insurance penetration go up, especially with schemes like Fasal Bima Yojana, Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana and Suraksha Bima Yojana. But it is still very low, especially in the general insurance sector and still has a lot of area to cover,”