Karnataka Congress MLA Patil: ‘World’s 2nd or 3rd richest’ made Rs 60,000 cr from insurance business

The former minister says the crop insurance scheme has been rigged to benefit companies and blames the revenue and agriculture departments.

At the national level, insurers paid Rs 26,393 crore as against the gross premium of Rs 32,000 crore, the former agriculture and rural development minister said. (Twitter/@@HKPatil1953)

Former Karnataka minister and Congress MLA H K Patil has alleged that people claiming to be the world’s “second or third richest person” have made Rs 60,000 crore from insurance business.

Patil made the remarks while speaking in the Assembly on Friday about crop damage caused by floods. “In 2019-20, the gross premium paid by the government for crop insurance was Rs 2,276 crore, but the payout from insurance companies was merely Rs 1,235 crore. The sum assured for the scheme was Rs 9,830 crore,” he said.

At the national level, insurers paid Rs 26,393 crore as against the gross premium of Rs 32,000 crore, the former agriculture and rural development minister said. The entire crop insurance scheme is helping insurers, not farmers, he said.

“There were days that insurance companies were not interested in crop insurance as it was a loss-making business for them, but now…they see a huge amount of profits. People who claim to be the second or third richest person in the world made profits of about Rs 60,000 crore in just a matter of 2-3 years in the insurance business,” he added.

Patil faulted the state’s revenue and agriculture departments for the situation.

Former agriculture minister Krishna Byre Gowda echoed Patil, saying the crop insurance scheme was rigged to help insurers. “In 2019-20, the state witnessed its worst calamity. Insurance companies should have provided at least five times of the gross premium paid, but farmers got merely 50 per cent of the premium,” Gowda said.

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