The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Commerce Secretary Firoz Ahmed yesterday came down heavily on the insurance executives for not following the insurance rules and playing foul with clients.

"Insurance is a matter of trust. If you do not give service to the clients on time, what's the benefit of doing insurance? People will dub insurance as cheating institution," he said at the Bima Padak-2008 awarding ceremony of the Bangladesh Insurance Executive Club (BIEC) in the city.

BIEC president ABM Nurul Haq presided over the ceremony held at the MCCI conference room. Chief Insurance Executive MA Ali Bhuiyan gave welcome speech.

Firoz accused most of the insurance companies of violating insurance rules and ignoring code of conduct. None of the companies demonstrate their commitment to code of conduct, he added.

He said most of the companies pay 60 per cent commission to the insurance agents defying the rules while permit only 20 per cent commission. Such practice hinders the expected growth, he noted. He was critical of dilly dally tactics of the companies in settling insurance claims.

The Commerce Secretary said insurance companies do not care about the client after opening of a policy. Sometimes insurance agents collect premium but do not deposit it to the company account. As a result, policyholders get cheated, he said.

Firoz said insurance sector is playing a vital role in economic development, industrialisation, agriculture development, rural poverty alleviation and employment generation.

"Insurance sector is contributing a lot to rural economy by involving poor people in the micro insurance," he said.

Last year Tk 5,800 crore of life fund has been invested in different sectors including real estate and stock market. As a result, like the banking sector, contribution of insurance sector to economy is increasing, he said.

Firoz Ahmed handed over crests to the eight insurance celebrities or their relatives for their contribution to the sector. The awardees are late Khuda Buksh, late Mujibur Rahman, late AKM Fazlul Huq (Mowla), late Golam Mowla, late MR Siddiqi, late Mustafizur Rahman Khan, late MA Samad, late Shafat Ahmed Chowdhury and Harunur Rashid.