Parliament Question: Delayed Payment of Claims under PMFBY

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 248 TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 10TH MARCH, 2026 DELAYED PAYMENT OF CLAIMS UNDER PMFBY *248 KUMARI SELJA:

Will the Minister of AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE कृ िष एवं िकसान क(cid:670)ाण मं(cid:361)ी

be pleased to state:

(a) the number of complaints received from farmers regarding non-payment or delayed payment of claims under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) during the last five years, particularly in Haryana;

(b) the reasons for delay in payment of compensation under the said scheme;

(c) the number of farmers who have received insurance benefits under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) during the last three years;

(d) the steps taken to improve accuracy and transparency in crop loss assessment and simplify the payment process under the scheme; and

(e) the measures proposed to ensure timely settlement of claims and strengthen accountability of insurance companies to restore farmers’ confidence ? ANSWER MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE कृ िष एवं िकसान क(cid:670)ाण मं(cid:361)ी (SHRI SHIVRAJ SINGH CHAUHAN)

(a) to (e) : A statement is laid on the Table of the House.STATEMENT REFERRED TO PART (a) TO (e) OF LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO.

248 FOR 10TH MARCH, 2026 REGARDING DELAYED PAYMENT OF CLAIMS UNDER PMFBY

(a) & (b) : Majority of the claims under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) are settled within the stipulated timelines under the Operational Guidelines of the scheme i.e within 21 days of the receipt requisite yield data from the concerned State Government, 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.

State-wise details of PMFBY claims related complaints/grievances received on KRPH portal, including those of Haryana from January, 2024 to February 2026 are given in Annexure.

(c) : Details of number of farmer applications enrolled, amount of claims paid and number of farmer applications benefitted with claims under PMFBY during last three years i.e. from 2022- 23 to 2024-25at all India level and in Haryana is as under:

Applications Benefitted Paid Claims State/UT Enrolled Applications (In No.) (Rs. In Crore) (In No.) Haryana 2,99,11,707 3,149.98 56,62,712 All India 40,76,52,900 54,883.28 9,81,69,412(d) & (e): Government has taken various steps to strengthen implementation of PMFBY, bring

transparency and ensure timely settlement of claims:  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 assess yields as well as fair and accurate Crop Yield Estimation. This initiative has been launched for paddy & wheat crops from Kharif 2023 wherein 30% weightage to yield estimation will mandatorily be assigned to YES-TECH derived yield. Soybean crop has been added 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.

This will be fed into a National database with interoperability & sharing of data in coordination with India Meteorological Department (IMD). WINDS provides data not only for YES-TECH but also for effective drought & disaster management, accurate weather prediction and offering better parametric insurance products. So far, 10 States have initiated the implementation of WINDS. At present, weather data is being received from over 12,000 stations.

The review/revisions / rationalization / improvements in the crop insurance schemes is a continuous process and decision on suggestion/ representations/ recommendations of the stakeholders/studies are taken from time to time. Based on the experience gained, views of various stakeholders and with a view to ensure better transparency, accountability, timely payment of claims to the farmers and to make the scheme more farmer friendly, Government has periodically revised the Operational Guidelines of the PMFBY comprehensively to ensure that the eligible benefits under the scheme reach the farmers timely and transparently.

Department is regularly monitoring the functioning of insurance companies, including timely settlement of claims through weekly video conferences of all stakeholders, one to one meeting as well as National Review Conferences.Annexure

PMFBY: State-wise Claims-related KRPH Grievances recorded from Jan 2024 to Feb 2026 Total claim related State/UT complaint/ grievance Resolved Resolved % Andhra Pradesh 9,370 9,369 100.0% Assam 2,956 2,952 99.9% Chhattisgarh 5,217 5,214 99.9% Delhi 7 7 100.0% Haryana 41,526 41,309 99.5% Himachal Pradesh 620 620 100.0% Jammu & Kashmir 3,289 3,274 99.5% Jharkhand 6,411 6,396 99.8% Karnataka 89 88 98.9% Kerala 2,379 2,336 98.2% Madhya Pradesh 61,320 61,189 99.8% Maharashtra 14,81,331 14,81,141 100.0% Manipur 13 13 100.0% Meghalaya 8 8 100.0% Odisha 29,885 29,838 99.8% Puducherry 144 140 97.2% Rajasthan 2,71,708 2,69,329 99.1% Tamil Nadu 44,299 44,126 99.6% Telangana 104 102 98.1% Tripura 20 20 100.0% Uttar Pradesh 54,261 54,045 99.6% Uttarakhand 11,695 11,684 99.9% West Bengal 4 4 100.0% Total 20,26,656 20,23,204 100% ******