New Provisions in the Operational Guidelines of Pradhan Mantri Fisal Bima Yojana (PMFBY):
• Provision of Penalties/ Incentives for States, ICs and Banks i.e. 12% interest rate to be paid by the Insurance Company to farmers for delay in settlement claims beyond two months of prescribed cutoff date. Similarly, State Govt. have to pay 12% interest rate for delay in release of State share of Subsidy beyond three months of prescribed cut off date/submission of requisition by Insurance Companies.
• Detailed SOP for Performance evaluation of ICs and their de-empanelment
• Inclusion of Perennial horticultural crops (on pilot basis) under the ambit of PMFBY. (OGs of PMFBY envisages coverage of food and Oilseed crops and Annul Commercial & Horticultural crops)
• Inclusion of hailstorms in post harvest losses, besides unseasonal and cyclonic rainfalls
• Inclusion of cloud burst and natural fire in localized calamities in addition to hailstorm, landslide, and inundation.
• Add on coverage for crop loss due to attack of wild animals on pilot basis with the additional financial liabilities of this provision to be borne by concerned state Govt.
• Mandatory capturing of Adhaar number – This would help in de-duplication
• Target for Coverage to ICs especially of Non loanee farmers (10% incremental).
• Definition of Major Crops, Unseasonal rainfall and Inundation incorporated for clarity and proper coverage
• Rationalization of premium release process: Release of Upfront premium subsidy based on 50% of 80% of total share of subsidy of corresponding season of previous year as GOI/State subsidy at the beginning of the season- Companies need not provide any projections for the advance subsidy. Second Installment – balance premium based onapproved business statistics on Portal for settlement of claims and final installment after reconciliation of entire coverage data on portal based on final business statistics on portal.
• States allowed to take decision for inclusion of crops having high premium for calculation of L1 calculation and for notification.
• Rationalization of methodology for calculation of TY - Moving average of best 5 out of 7 years for calculation of claim amount.
• Settlement of claims (Prevented sowing/ on account for Mid season adversity / Localized Claims) without waiting for Second installment of final subsidy.
• Yield based claims to be settled on the basis of subsidy provided on provisional business data.
• Separate Budget Allocation for Administrative expenses (atleast 2% of budget of scheme).
• Broad Activity wise seasonality discipline containing defined timelines for all major activities to streamlines the process of coverage, submission of yield data and early settlement of claims.
• District wise crop wise crop calendar (for major crops) to decide cutoff date for enrolment.
• Increased time for change of crop name for insurance - upto 2 days prior to cutoff date for enrolment instead of earlier provision of 1 month before cutoff date.
• More time to insured farmer to intimate individual claims – 72 hours (instead of 48 hours) through any stakeholders and directly on portal.
• Timeline for declaration of prevented sowing
• Detailed SOP for dispute redressal regarding yield data/crop loss.
• Detailed SOP for claims estimation w.r.t. Add on products i.e. Mid season adversity, prevented/failed sowing, post harvest loss and localized claims
• Detailed SOP for Area Correction factor
• Detailed SOP for Multi picking crops.
• Detailed plan for publicity and awareness- earmarked expenditure-0.5% of Gross premium per company per season
• Use of RST in clustering/Risk classification.
• Penalties/ Incentives for States, ICs and Banks
• Performance evaluation of ICs and their de-empanelment
Source: http://pib.nic.in/
