SMEs need more awareness on insurance, says SBI General Insurance CEO

Kolkata, Dec 8 (KNN)  Going by the number of insurance claims made and the poor valuation of damage claims, it is clear that the MSME sector is under insured, according to MD and CEO, SBI General Insurance, Bhaskar Jyoti Sarma, media reports said.

The report by Hindu Business Line quoted Sarma as saying that the recent cyclone Hud Hud that shattered the port city of Visakhapatnam was a lesson for micro, small and medium enterprises, as well as the insurance company.

Stating that penetration of insurance product is poor among MSME units and that more awareness was needed on the subject, the insurance company CEO said that they had received over 300 claims from SME units after the disaster.  While SBI General Insurance could make initial ‘on account payment of 10 per cent of damage claims, on further study it was obvious how under insured the units were.

According to Sarma, majority of the units had little knowledge of policies and were not insured for disasters such as the cyclone, and could now want to be informed in this regard.
Further, the insurance company itself had not marketed its insurance products adequately among the SMEs, the media report said.  (KNN/ES)