Concern over future of Postal Life Insurance

Top Postal Life Insurance (PLI) officials sent a strong message to their employees to buck up and face competition to save the oldest life insurance scheme in the country, which turned 128 years this year. 

Speaking at an award ceremony held on Tuesday to recognise PLI employees who have turned in good revenue by policy delivery, PLI Chief General Manager Faiz-ur-Rehman said something needs to be done seriously.

“Our after-sale services is not satisfactory, while all our marketing responsibility lies on our own limited workforce. Our premium collection through agents is just 10 per cent compared to our competitor Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) that gets 80 per cent of its revenue from its direct agents,” he rued.

As many as 29 awards were given away to employees of PLI Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Army Postal Service, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Assam circles.

The Karnataka circle did not receive any award. “For 2011-12, Karnataka PLI reached 88 per cent of its target but there is no individual performance,” said Karnataka chief postmaster general Hilda Abraham.

Kavery Banerjee, member (PLI) of the Postal Services Board, said the PLI had lost its market position with the insurance sector starting in India. “Earlier, LIC and PLI were the only insurance providers. Now, we have two dozen of them. We need to rethink our marketing, sales and after-sales strategies. We need a dedicated marketing section,” she said.

Established in 1884, PLI has 5.1 million policyholders in urban areas and 20.1 million in rural areas.