More than Rs. 5,000 crore lying unclaimed with 24 insurance companies
13 Feb, 2013The reply to an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act has shown that more than Rs. 5, 000 crore was lying unclaimed with 24 insurance companies. The Insurance Regulatory and Development (IRDA) has informed that a total of Rs. 4,453.27 crore was lying unutilized in life insurance companies while the figure lying with non insurance companies is Rs. 679.25 crore.
Based on the data provided in the reply, a petition was filed in Delhi High Court seeking the court to direct the Finance Ministry and the IRDA to design a mechanism so that the unclaimed money could be utilized in case of failure of genuine efforts for finding out the claimants.
The petitioner alleged that unclaimed amount indicates the failure of the companies in genuinely reaching out to the legal claimants and suggested to create a separate "National Unclaimed Money Account" for this purpose. The court has issued notices to the Ministry of Finance and the IRDA asking them to file their reply in this regard by April 26, 2013.