Companies lament about delays in insurance claims

Chennai: Loss of raw materials and customers and complete shutdown of the market put his venture off track for almost two months after heavy rains lashed Chennai last year.

Dr Sivaram Pillai, CEO, Proklean Technologies, has got back to business after almost a year, but laments that the time-consuming process for insurance settlements is still on.

Proklean Technologies develops eco-friendly, non-toxic, biodegradable products for textile and leather industries. After the floods, the machinery was shut down for a few weeks as floodwater destroyed the raw materials and the venture lost some customers.

“As far as the insurance is concerned, we got paid partly. The insurance companies have been trying to help us but the claims have been slashed by some percentage,” said Dr Pillai.

“The products don’t have a listed classification and ours is a unique kind of venture, so we have no salvage buyers for the products – the reason the insurers gave for not being able to settle the full claim.”

Almost a year on, he said, the business is getting back on track and hopes things will get settled soon. Echoing his voice, are many other industry owners, whose ventures and business dreams were awash with the floods, and lack of help from Central and State Government has left them with the only option of taking loans to rebuild their business.

“Numerous businesses were washed away during the floods and even after a year, we have got no support from the State or Central governments. The insurance claims have paid us measly sums so we had to take up loans from banks and lenders to restart the businesses,” said K.V. Kanakambaram, president of Industrial Estate Manufacturers Association at Sidco, Guindy.

The onset of rains only brings about fear among the minds of business owners. “We had taken loans and within 90 days if the instalment and interest amount is not paid, banks declare the machinery to be a non-performing asset. That is what happened last year, and again now we have taken loans or borrowed money from friends,” he added.

While some had taken insurance cover for their businesses, some had not. “I had not taken an insurance cover, and with no support, the business has been in a lull,” said B Kumar, the owner of a precision tooling and spare parts company.

Have paid major part of claims: Insurers

A year after the floods, small-scale industries still await the complete settlement sum.  Due to pending paper works and unclear forms for settlement, insurance dealers must be doubly clear while processing the claims, according to a business owner who lost a major part of business in floods.

But insurance dealers say that most of the small and medium scale businesses claims were settled earlier this year by May.  “As per my knowledge, full claims were given for small and mid-sized businesses which suffered losses. Only the huge corporations were pending due to the need of more proofs and survey documents,” said a former officer with National Insurance.  The staff at insurance companies claim that due need of inspection and survey reports, many are still pending but more or less, the claims are settled.

Four public sector General Insurance companies — United India, National Insurance, Oriental Insurance and New India Assurance — set up special counters for the settlement of flood claims round the clock, as per officials.
 “In all totally, approximately Rs 1,400 crore were settled by all the four public sector General Insurance Companies.  These have already settled around 96% of the claims,” said G Kannan, joint secretary, South Zone, General Insurance Employees' Association.  “After the floods, for one whole month, our staff was working 24/7, and on the spot, claims were settled for two-wheelers without the surveyor's report. Also, provisional payment was also made for 4 wheeler claims at United India," he added.