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Increase motor TP rates, cut GST on health premiums: Non-life insurers
DFS Secretary urges insurers to improve claims processing in order to reduce customer inconvenience
Subrata Panda Mumbai
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Private sector non-life insurers on Wednesday appealed to the Centre to revise the motor third-party premiums and reduce the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on health insurance premiums.
The insurers made these demands, and some others too, during their meeting with the Department of Financial Services (DFS) Secretary, according to people familiar with the matter. The PM Fasal Bima Yojana was also discussed.
The insurers also asked the DFS secretary to nudge hospitals to be empanelled on the National Health Claims Exchange (NCHX) so that health insurance claims can be processed faster for customers.
NHCX, a government of India initiative,
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Indian Express
26 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Fintechs should see agri, rural areas as new markets, not just social responsibility: FM Nirmala Sitharaman
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The Finance Minister said many other countries could only dream about the speed with which Indian companies were innovating in the digital payments space, with even several advanced countries not making progress at the same pace. 'There are several countries which appreciate and equally ask us if there can be an interaction which can be enabled,' Sitharaman said. A host of companies won at the Digital Payments Awards, including Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda, and UCO Bank in the public sector bank category and HDFC Bank, City Union Bank, and IDFC FIRST Bank among private banks. In the small finance and payments bank categories, Equitas Small Finance Bank and India Post Payments Bank were named winners. Among fintechs, Whatsapp Meta, Navi, and Mobikwik won joint first place in the third-party app providers category, while PhonePe, Paytm, and Google Pay were awarded the top three places in the offline digital payments acceptance infrastructure category. 'Push the boundaries' While lauding the 'light-touch regulation, heavy encouragement' approach, the Finance Minister said India still needs 'a bulk of its population' to benefit from financial inclusion. To become a developed country by 2047, Sitharaman called on those in attendance to 'push the boundaries'. 'You have set pioneering targets, achieved them. But now we need to take it further and set standards,' she said. Noting that the fintech adoption rate in India was 87 per cent as against 67 per cent globally, the Finance Minister said nearly Rs 44 lakh crore had been transferred through Direct Benefit Transfers (DBT) since 2014, resulting in savings of Rs 3.48 lakh crore. Going forward, the Finance Minister said financial inclusion should be advanced even further, with regional languages playing a bigger role, strengthened by voice-based services. Account aggregators, she added, could unlock new possibilities, with the number of entities on the account aggregator platform rising to nearly 700 as of March 2025 from 24 three years ago. Sitharaman also highlighted the need to improve literacy and cybersecurity, with solutions needed to ensure people don't fall prey to being 'digitally arrested' or that fly-by-night operators don't take away their money. 'We need a set of fintech companies which are constantly working on giving solutions for the newer challenges which are arising.' Speaking earlier at the awards, M Nagaraju, Secretary, Department of Financial Services, lauded the accomplishments of Unified Payments Interface as a mode of digital payment, saying its success had crossed borders as it was live in seven countries, namely Bhutan, France, Mauritius, Nepal, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and the UAE. Nagaraju echoed Sitharaman's priorities for the future, naming deepening digital payment adoption across sectors and geographies, strengthening cybersecurity and fraud prevention frameworks, promoting digital and financial literacy at the grassroot level, and 'ensuring that digital payments remain inclusive, secure, and citizen-centric'. Make for the world According to Sitharaman, India's fintech companies and their innovations have the potential to become global public goods that can benefit other emerging and developing economies, which would open new markets for Indian firms. 'Our players must aim to export our successful models abroad. We have the talent, we have the market scale, and we have also proven solutions. So fintech revolution in India will further flourish,' she said. Pointing out that India's fintech market is projected to grow to over $400 billion by 2028-29, Sitharaman said the scale of opportunity is immense and that the sector's 'best chapters are yet to be written'. Siddharth Upasani is a Deputy Associate Editor with The Indian Express. He reports primarily on data and the economy, looking for trends and changes in the former which paint a picture of the latter. Before The Indian Express, he worked at Moneycontrol and financial newswire Informist (previously called Cogencis). Outside of work, sports, fantasy football, and graphic novels keep him busy. ... Read More


Indian Express
31 minutes ago
- Indian Express
HC orders Centre to restart MGNREGA in Bengal from Aug 1, TMC says state govt vindicated
Stating that no central scheme can be sent to cold storage forever, the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday directed the Centre to restart MGNREGA, the 100-day rural job guarantee scheme, in West Bengal prospectively from August 1. The Division Bench of the High Court, led by Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam, allowed the Centre to impose special conditions, restrictions, and regulations — not imposed in other states — to ensure that no irregularity occurs when the scheme is being implemented in West Bengal. The BJP-led government at the Centre had stopped the implementation of the scheme in West Bengal from March 9, 2022, alleging widespread irregularities and non-compliance of its directives by the state. The TMC government in the state, on the other hand, accused the Centre of withholding the MGNREGA dues for 'political reasons' and said that it has submitted 22 compliance reports to the Centre but to no avail. The Division Bench, also comprising Justice Chaitali Chatterjee (Das), said: 'The scheme of the Act does not envisage a situation where the scheme would be put to cold storage for eternity… The Centre can impose any kind of conditions to prevent corruption… If the Center wants, it can send money directly to the account of a specific person through the central portal. The Centre can carry out necessary surveillance to prevent corruption. In addition, the Centre can continue investigations in all the districts of the state.' The High Court's order came on a PIL (Public Interest Litigation) filed by an outfit of labourers called Paschim Banga Khet Mansoor Samity. The group sought the outstanding wages of workers settled with at least 0.05 per cent interest. BJP MLA and Leader of Opposition in Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, also filed an application demanding a CBI investigation into the alleged embezzlement of Central funds in the scheme's implementation in West Bengal. Welcoming the High Court's order, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the Centre must immediately release the arrears under MGNREGA scheme and other rural development projects before sending further inquiry teams to the state. 'We welcome the High Court judgment. Let them (Centre) restart the programme first. This is not their money, it's public money. It's our right to get it,' Banerjee said at a press conference at Nabanna. 'We did not even go to court; an individual organisation went. From the government's side, we will go for a review to demand the arrears. The Centre is sending teams to Bengal, but first, give us the due money. Not a single rupee has been released for the past few years. This is public money,' she said. TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said that the High Court's order vindicated the state government's stand. 'The order vindicated our stand and our fight for the central funds. The Centre has been blocking Bengal government's dues illegally and in a discriminatory manner. The High Court had on April 10 directed the central government to state why the MGNREGA scheme should not be prospectively implemented in West Bengal, leaving out four districts. It has been stated that there are allegations of defalcation of funds with regard to four districts of Purba Bardhaman, Hooghly, Malda and Darjeeling (GTA area). The Central government on Wednesday submitted its stand in the form of an affidavit on implementing the NREGA scheme prospectively in the state. During the hearing on Wednesday, the court said: 'From beginning, in so many hearings, we are trying to make it clear whether the legal beneficiaries will get their wages. If there are 10 people who have genuinely done the work, what about them?' To this, Additional Solicitor General Ashok Chakraborty, representing the Central government, said: 'Who is to assess whether these people have genuinely worked or not? Since there is factual proof of misappropriation of funds and unless we are satisfied with the State's action taken report, we cannot disburse funds.' The Chief Justice then said: 'Whatever has happened has happened. Now, draw a line and make a beginning. Prospectively implement the scheme from August 1. Impose conditions. Parallelly proceed with your inquiry and recovery of misappropriated amounts.' State Advocate General AG Kishore, representing the West Bengal government, said that nodal officers might not be required anymore for wage distribution as the Centre has come out with a new portal for the electronic disbursement of payments. The matter will come up for further hearing after August 15. Before the Centre had suspended the MGNREGS in West Bengal in March 2022, 75.97 lakh families had availed the scheme in the state in 2021-22. The number was even higher (79.65 lakh) during 2020-21, the year that saw the outbreak of Covid-19. The last allocation, made in 2021-22, was for 27 crore labour days, out of which wages worth Rs 3,500 crore were withheld by the Centre. In the previous year, 2020-21, the allocation had been 41 crore labour days. Responding to a starred question asked by TMC member Jawar Sircar, Rural Development Minister Giriraj Singh on December 06, 2023, informed Rajya Sabha that a total amount of Rs 13,965.91 crore was pending as Central share for two schemes—MG-NREGS and PMAY-G. The West Bengal government sources, however, say that the total dues of about Rs 18,000 crore are pending under three rural development schemes—MG-NRGES, PMAY-G, and PMGSY. In January this year, West Bengal's Rural Development Minister Pradip K Mazumdar had written a letter to the Union Rural Development Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, seeking an appointment for a meeting to urge the latter to release funds. TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee had led two delegations of party MPs to Krishi Bhawan, seeking the release of funds to the states. Recently, the Ministry of Rural Development had informed a parliamentary standing committee that the decision to release funds amounting to Rs 7,888.67 crore to West Bengal under Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G) during the current financial year (2024-25) is pending with 'competent authority'. With inputs from ENS, New Delhi


Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Scrap dealer floats bogus companies to get Rs 23 crore ITC, held
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