Parliament Question: Allegations against Insurance Companies under PMFBY

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4102 TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 17TH MARCH, 2026 ALLEGATIONS AGAINST INSURANCE COMPANIES UNDER PMFBY 4102. Shri Raja Ram Singh: Will the Minister of AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE कृ िष एवं िकसान क(cid:670)ाण मं(cid:361)ी be pleased to state: (a) whether the Government is aware that farmers of various States have staged protests alleging non-payment and arbitrary settlement of crop insurance claims under PMFBY, despite documented crop losses and if so, the details thereof; (b) the number of claims pending and amount unpaid during the last five agricultural seasons, State-wise; (c) whether any inquiry has been ordered into allegations of manipulation of Crop Cutting Experiments (CCEs) and collusion between insurance companies and local officials; and (d) if so, the details of the steps taken to ensure time-bound and transparent settlement of claims in the States and methods to prevent such acts? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE FOR AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE कृ िष एवं िकसान क(cid:670)ाण रा(cid:475) मं(cid:361)ी (SHRI BHAGIRATH CHAUDHARY) (a) & (b) : As on 31.12.2025, out of the total reported claims of Rs.1.97 lakh crore since the inception of the scheme in 2016, Rs.1.93 lakh crore (97.68 %) have already been paid to the farmers under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY). State-wise details of claims reported, paid and pending during last five years i.e. from 2020-21 to 2024-25 under PMFBY are at Annexure. Majority of the claims are settled within the stipulated timelines under the Operational Guidelines of the scheme by the insurance companies. However, during the implementation of PMFBY, some complaints were received in the past about payment of claims which are primarily on account of (a) delay in providing State Government share of subsidy (b) non-payment/delayed payment or under payment of claims on account of incorrect/delayed submission of insurance proposals by banks (c) discrepancy in yield data & consequent disputes between State Government and insurance companies etc. The pending claims on account of these issues are settled after their resolution as per provisions of the scheme. Since the scheme is implemented by the State Government, therefore, in order to resolve the grievances/complaints including those related to claims of insured farmers, provision of Stratified Grievance Redressal Mechanism viz. District Level Grievance Redressal Committee (DGRC), State Level Grievance Redressal Committee (SGRC) has been made in the Revised Operational Guidelines of the Scheme. These committees have been given the detailed mandate as outlined in the Operational Guidelines for hearing the complaints/ grievances and to dispose them as per the stipulated procedure.To further facilitate the grievance redressal mechanism, Krishi Rakshak Portal and Helpline (KRPH) has been developed. A single Pan-India toll free number 14447 has been deployed and linked to the insurance companies’ database, where farmers can raise their grievances/issues. Timelines to resolve these grievances/issues has also been fixed. (d) : Government has taken various steps to strengthen implementation of PMFBY, bring transparency and ensure timely settlement of claims under PMFBY :  Government has undertaken development of National Crop Insurance Portal (NCIP) as a single source of data ensuring subsidy payment, co-ordination, transparency, dissemination of information and delivery of services including direct online enrollment of farmers, uploading/obtaining individual insured famer’s details for better monitoring and to ensure transfer of claim amount electronically to the individual farmer’s Bank Account.  In order to rigorously monitor claim disbursal process, a dedicated module namely ‘Digiclaim Module’ has been operationalized for payment of claims from Kharif 2022 onwards. It involves integration of National Crop Insurance Portal (NCIP) with Public Finance Management System (PFMS) and accounting system of Insurance Companies to provide timely & transparent processing of all claims.  W.e.f. Kharif 2024, in case payment is not made timely by Insurance Company, penalty.of 12% is auto-calculated and levied through NCIP.  Delinking of Central Government share of premium subsidy from that of State Governments has been implemented so that farmers can get proportionate claims relating to the Central Government share.  12% penalty is also levied on State Government for delay in release of State share of subsidy.  Opening of ESCROW Account by the State Government concerned for deposit of their premium share in advance as per provisions of the scheme has been made mandatory w.e.f. Kharif 2025 season for bringing financial discipline.  Also, towards leveraging technology in implementation of the scheme, various steps like capturing of yield data/Crop Cutting Experiments (CCEs) data through CCE- Agri App & uploading it on the NCIP, allowing insurance companies to witness the conduct of CCEs, integration of State land records with NCIP etc. have already been taken to improve timely settlement of the claims to farmers.  Tranche based claim settlement has been initiated w.e.f. Rabi 2024-25. Following technologies for Objective Crop Damage & Loss Assessment and transparency have also been implemented recently w.e.f. 2023-24 under the scheme:  YES-TECH (Yield Estimation System Based on Technology) for gradual migration to Remote-Sensing based yield estimation to help in fair and accurate Crop Yield Estimation. This initiative has been launched for paddy & wheat crops from Kharif 2023 and Soybean crop from Kharif 2024 season. YES-TECH is being implemented by 13 States/UTs during 2025-26.  WINDS (Weather Information Network and Data System) for setting up of Network of Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) & Automatic Rain-Gauges (ARG) to the tune of 5 times of existing network for collecting hyper-local weather data at GP & Block level. WINDS provides data not only for YES-TECH but also for effective drought & disaster management, accurate weather prediction. So far, 10 States have initiated the implementation of WINDS.Annexure PMFBY & RWBCIS: All India Claims Report from 2020-21 to 2024-25 as on 31.12.2025 State/UT Name Reported Claims Paid Pending Claims Claims (Rs. In Crore) A & N Islands 0.05 0.05 0.00 Andhra Pradesh 3,793.60 751.94 3,041.66 Assam 639.85 617.84 22.01 Chhattisgarh 3,713.87 3,712.42 1.44 Goa 0.01 0.01 0.00 Haryana 6,015.02 5,966.52 48.49 Himachal Pradesh 385.62 376.79 8.83 Jammu & Kashmir 122.53 120.28 2.24 Jharkhand 27.28 - 27.28 Karnataka 11,251.80 11,182.78 69.02 Kerala 587.24 574.54 12.70 Madhya Pradesh 13,923.73 13,877.83 45.90 Maharashtra 27,115.96 26,812.78 303.18 Manipur 6.90 6.74 0.16 Meghalaya 24.30 24.08 0.21 Odisha 2,594.33 2,583.67 10.67 Puducherry 14.81 13.20 1.61 Rajasthan 19,374.25 18,994.26 379.99 Sikkim 0.04 0.03 0.01 Tamil Nadu 5,961.62 5,917.27 44.35 Tripura 9.78 9.67 0.11 Uttar Pradesh 3,354.45 3,315.66 38.79 Uttarakhand 1,168.26 1,119.45 48.81 Total 100,085.31 95,977.84 4,107.48 *****