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Ambar Singh Roy

The growth in the number of RPLI policies and the corpus of the sum assured has provided the postal administration with the impetus to use its nationwide infrastructure and vast network to augment policyholder base. It has also begun to feel the need to aggressively market the PLI schemes in urban areas.

Kolkata , Aug. 11

THE Department of Posts is contemplating initiatives aimed at expanding the base of its Rural Postal Life Insurance (RPLI) policyholders. This follows a near three-fold rise in the sum assured on RPLI policies issued by the postal administration in 2001-02 over 2000-01.

According to informed sources, the number of new RPLI policies issued in 2001-02 on an all-India basis stood at 3.68 lakh. The aggregate sum assured on the same was Rs 1,697 crore. In 2000-01, the number of new policies issued across the country was Rs 1.62 lakh with the aggregate sum assured figure being pegged at Rs 662 crore.

The total number of active RPLI polices has gone up from 8.23 lakh in 2000-01 to 11.33 lakh in as on March 31, 2002. The sum assured on the active policies went up from Rs 2,898 crore in 2000-01 to Rs 4,400 crore in as on March 31, 2002.

According to the sources, the growth in the number of RPLI policies and the corpus of the sum assured has provided the postal administration with the impetus to use its nationwide infrastructure and vast network to further augment the RPLI policyholders base.

Along with this, the Department of Posts has begun to feel the need to aggressively market the Postal Life Insurance (PLI) schemes in urban areas. The number of active PLI policies as on March 31, 2002 stood at 20.08 lakh and the aggregate sum assured on them was Rs 11,870 crore. The number of new PLI policies procured in 2001-02 stood at 1.72 lakh with a sum assured of Rs 1,710 crore. In 2000-01, a total of 1.57 new PLI policies were procured and the total sum assured on them was Rs 1,363 crore.

There are five PLI schemes, which offer a bonus of between Rs 75 and Rs 95 on every Rs 1,000 sum assured. The bonus on RPLI schemes is stated to be between Rs 35 and Rs 40 on every Rs 1,000 sum assured. "We are able to offer a rate of bonus that is higher than that offered by competition because our infrastructure is there and our operational costs are minimal," the sources said. They, however, lamented that, despite the vast postal network and infrastructure, not much has been done to market PLI and RPLI schemes aggressively. No wonder, the Department of Posts receives a mere 2 per cent of the total money that the public invests in life insurance schemes.

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