NEW DELHI: Insurance companies in the last over five years made nearly Rs 40,000 crore under the Centre’s flagship crop insurance scheme, shows the compiled data of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) since its inception in 2016-17 to Kharif (summer crops) 2021-22.
The data, shared by agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar in the Rajya Sabha, shows that these companies paid claims of Rs 1,19,314 crore to farmers against the total premium collection of Rs 1,59,132 crore under the scheme during the period. Though crores of farmers benefited under it, the scheme turned out to be lucrative for insurance companies, including private ones, as well.
Eighteen general insurance companies have been empanelled by the central government for implementation of PMFBY in the country, but specific insurance companies among them are selected by the state governments concerned through a transparent bidding process.93063732
Tomar shared these details in his written response to different Parliament questions, asked separately by BJP member Sushil Kumar Modi and TMC’s Santanu Sen. “Since inception of the scheme till Kharif 2021- 22 season, Rs 4,190 per hectare has been paid as claims to farmers under the scheme,” said the minister.
The PMFBY was launched with effect from April 1, 2016 after rolling back earlier schemes to include more risks under crop insurance cover and make it more affordable for farmers. Under the scheme, a uniform maximum premium of only 2% of the sum insured is paid by farmers for all Kharif crops and 1. 5% for all Rabi (winter sown) crops.
In case of annual commercial and horticultural crops, the maximum premium to be paid by farmers is only 5%. The premium rates to be paid by farmers are very low and balance of actuarial premium is being borne by the government, to be shared equally by state & central government, to provide full insured amount to the farmers against crop loss on account of natural calamities.
Though the scheme was very well received by the farmers in the first year (2016-17) of its implementation when its coverage reached 30% of Gross Cropped Area (GCA), its popularity declined later with GCA decreasing to 27% in 2018-19 and 25% in 2019-2020.
Punjab never joined the scheme while few states such as Bihar, West Bengal, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana even opted out of the scheme in its different years of implementation. Andhra Pradesh, however, re-joined the scheme this month.
