Tsunami costs Chennai general insurers Rs 8.5 crore so far

The tsunami has cost general insurers in Chennai about Rs 8.5 crore till now. However, a complete picture will emerge only after January.

Speaking to Business Standard, Chennai-based general insurer United India Insurance's CMD K Garg said: "It will take at least two more weeks to estimate the total claims arising of the tsunami incident. So far, we have received claims worth Rs 5 crore mainly from the marine cargo."

The claims arising from the tsunami damage, he believed, will be comparatively small. The worst affected along the eastern coast are areas where people below the poverty line were living. For instance, in Chennai, most of the fishing boats were not insured, he said.

Arun Agarwal, CEO of Cholamandalam MS General Insurance Company Limited, said that the company has received 11 claims of about Rs 2.5 crore from all insurance portfolios.

It was difficult to quantify the claims received by the public insurer as most of the claims were below Rs 50 lakh and only one claim was about Rs 2 crore, Chennai-based general insurer United India Insurance Co Ltd, CMD, K Garg, said.

Royal Sundaram said that it had so far received about Rs 75 lakh worth of claims in the past two days.

Garg as well as Agarwal said that the claims were not likely to impact their profits as the insurers duly had taken reinsurance.

The insurers also hope that the December 26 tsunami will encourage more mid-sized corporates to take a full insurance cover.

"To save on high premiums, the corporates as well as individuals do not take a full cover of the fire portfolio," Garg pointed out.

A Royal Sundaram official said if a traditional fire cover was taken, a property is insured against floods, but for earthquake, a special cover was required. To take advantage of a rebate, most corporates and individuals do not take the flood cover, he said.