On December 28, 2020 The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India(IRDAI) issued an exposure draft on guidelines for standard travel insurance policies that is to be offered from April 1, 2021 by every general insurer and stand-alone health insurer.
IRDAI has asked all the stakeholders to comment/suggest on this exposure draft by 6th January, 2021.
Purpose of Exposure Draft– To have a standard travel insurance product with uniform coverage and policy wordings across the industry.
Highlights
Variants
As per the exposure draft, insurers can launch 5 standard travel insurance plan variants under domestic travel and 4 plan variants under overseas category.
Standard travel insurance plan variant– Travel by any mode of public transport (Within City), Travel by any mode of public transport (Outside City), Train Journey,
Air-travel, Domestic Tours involving Road, Water, Train and Air travel
Overseas travel variants– Long-term Trip (Students), Short-term trip (Tours/Leisure)(Covers travel through Road, Water, Train and Air),
Multi-trip during policy period (Business), Coverage only for Travel (Onward & Return).
Age Restrictions
There is no age restriction for the products, but as per the draft guidelines the proposer(person who takes the insurance cover, he/she is also called the policyholder) must be of minimum of age 18 year old.
Policy period
The policy period of standard product is the only during the period of journey of policyholder
Offered
The product will also be offered on an individual, family floater and on group basis.
Pricing
Pricing is to be determined by the insurer on the basis of covers proposed to be offered subject to complying with the norms specified in the IRDAI (Health Insurance) Regulations, 2016 (HIR, 2016) and Guidelines notified.
Compensation
i.If the insured suffers from accidental bodily injury while overseas and this is the only and direct cause of his Death within 365 days period, the insurance company will pay
the amount stated as sum insured as compensation to the legal heirs/nominee.
ii.If a minor below 18 years of age has an accidental death, the maximum liability of the insurer would be limited to 50% of the sum insured.
iii.The company will pay the amount stated as sum insured as compensation, if the insured person of domestic travel insurance dies within 365 days from the date of the accident caused by the common carrier.
Recent Related News:
On September 15, 2020, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued Draft Rupee Interest Rate Derivatives (Reserve Bank) Directions, 2020 under Section 45 W of the RBI Act, 1934 to allow foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) to undertake exchange-traded rupee interest rate derivatives transactions subject to an overall ceiling of Rs 5,000 crore. The RBI has sought comment on these directions by October 15, 2020.
About Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India(IRDAI):
It is a statutory body formed under an Act of Parliament, i.e., Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Act, 1999 (IRDAI Act 1999).
Chairman – Subhash Chandra(C) Khuntia
Headquarters – Hyderabad, Telangana
Constituted– 1999(incorporated- April 2000)
