Lok Sabha Question No. 246 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-07-22
Subject: Timely Settlement of PMFBY Claims
Ministry: AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
Asked by: Smt. Delkar Kalaben Mohanbhai, Dr. Shivaji Bandappa Kalge, Shri Bhumare Sandipanrao Asaram, Shri Balya Mama Suresh Gopinath Mhatre, Shri Gyaneshwar Patil

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 246

TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 22 ND  JULY, 2025

## TIMELY SETTLMENT OF PMFBY CLAIMS

246. DR. SHIVAJI BANDAPPA KALGE: SHRI BALYA MAMA SURESH GOPINATH MHATRE: SHRI BHUMARE SANDIPANRAO ASARAM: SMT. DELKAR KALABEN MOHANBHAI: SHRI GYANESHWAR PATIL:

Will the Minister of AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE क ृ िष एवं िकसान कʞाण मंũी be pleased to state:

(a) whether the claims under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) are being settled of farmers timely along with actions taken by the Government to overcome the challenges being faced in this regard;

(b) whether the Government proposes to launch any new schemes or take any initiatives to reduce the debt burden on farmers;

(c) if so, the city-wise details thereof pertaining to Maharashtra, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Madhya Pradesh; and

(d)  the  details  of  the  Government's  policy  with  regard  to  agricultural  loan  waiver  and whether the Government propose to implement in same national level?

## ANSWER

THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE क ृ िष एवं िकसान कʞाण राǛ मंũी (SHRI  RAMNATH THAKUR)

(a): The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna (PMFBY) was introduced in the country from Kharif 2016 season.   The scheme is voluntary for the States and farmers.   All the major work  like  selection  of  insurance  model,  selection  of  Insurance  Companies  through transparent bidding process, enrollment of farmers, assessment of crop yield/crop loss for calculation of admissible claims are being performed by the concerned State Government or Joint Committee of State Government officials and concerned insurance company. The roles and responsibilities of each stakeholder are defined in the Operational Guidelines of the scheme for the proper execution of the scheme.

Majority  of  the  claims  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/grievances  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 issue are settled after their resolution as per provisions of the scheme.

Government has taken various steps to strengthen implementation of this scheme, 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.
-  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.
-  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.
-  Provision of 12% penalty on delay in payment of claims by insurance company is auto calculated on National Crop Insurance Portal (NCIP).

Further, following technologies for Objective Crop Damage & Loss Assessment and transparency have also been implemented recently w.e.f. 2023-24 under the scheme:

- i. 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.
- ii. 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.

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.

(b) to (d) : No Sir.  Presently, no scheme for loan waiver is in operation and/or under consideration  in  the  Department  of  Agriculture  &  Farmers  Welfare.        However,  the government is implementing a 100% centrally funded Central Sector Scheme known as the

Modified Interest Subvention Scheme (MISS) across various States and UTs on pan India. This scheme aims to provide concessional interest rates on short-term agricultural loans obtained by farmers  through  Kisan  Credit Cards  (KCC)  for  their working  capital requirements.

Under this scheme, farmers receive KCC loans at a subsidized interest rate of 7%. To  facilitate  this,  an  up  front  interest  subvention  (IS)  of  1.5%  is  provided  to  financial institutions.  Additionally,  farmers  who  repay  their  loans  promptly  receive  a  3%  Prompt Repayment Incentive (PRI), effectively reducing the interest rate to 4% per annum.

The benefits of IS and PRI are available for loan limits up to Rs.3 lakhs. However, if the short-term loan is taken for allied activities (other than crop husbandry), the loan amount is limited to Rs.2 lakhs.

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