ISLAMABAD, April 19: Pakistan has decided to provide risk insurance coverage to foreign tourists, businessmen and foreign investors with a view to offering them reasonable protection against any terrorist act.
Foreigners’ reluctance to travel to Pakistan after the 9/11 episode resulted in limiting tourism and economic growth in terms of foreign investments, business and foreign exchange.
Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan said due to limited coverage and high premium rates, foreign tourists’ visits to Pakistan has reduced substantially during the last few years as Pakistan was declared a high-risk zone area.
Answering a question, Chairman National Insurance Company Abid Javed Akbar said that under the scheme Pakistan would provide normal rate of insurance to foreign tourists against the foreign insurance company’s exorbitant premium rates for terrorism cover, which is between 50 per cent and 200 per cent higher than the normal travel insurance.
He said the insurance coverage will be extended to government delegates, official trade delegates, business travels and tourism. The scheme will be available for a period of one week or one month.
Under the industrial insurance coverage, property risk will be covered up to Rs600 million with a reasonable competitive premium. Moreover, rates have now been reduced and ceilings have been increased substantially to take care of major foreign investments and funded projects.
The commerce minister disclosed that tax incentives would be announced in the upcoming budget to increase insurance penetration, especially life insurance, which would give a boost to contractual savings.
He said a range of amendments have been approved by the prime minister for removing impediments, including anomalies in the regulatory framework, strengthening the capacity of the industry, encouraging the spread of insurance to rural areas and fine tuning the regulatory framework for Takaful -- Islamic mode of insurance.
He said the general insurance industry had also pointed out prevalence of bogus insurance companies issuing spurious Motor Vehicle Third Party Insurance Policies for the registration of motor vehicles.
The Prime Minister has directed Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) to examine ways to prevent the issue of bogus policies and take suitable action, which should include making provincial agencies aware of the identity of registered insurance companies.
Mr Khan said the ministry of commerce has initiated a proposal to introduce a standard compensation scheme relating to third-party liability to be underwritten by registered insurers which will be soon taken up with provincial governments.
He said to penetrate rural areas and provide insurance cover to socially-deprived people, it had been decided that group insurance would be made compulsory, so that all workers would be compulsorily insured under labour laws.
