More than six hundred members of the Life Insurance Agents’ Federation of India staged a demonstration near the LIC Division Office in Vellore on Tuesday, highlighting their demands for increase in bonus for policyholders and removal of levying GST on the premium amount.
Agents from Vellore, Tiruvannamalai, Villupuram, Cuddalore and Puducherry participated. The agents also demanded the time provided for renewal of policies be increased to five years. “If a policy lapses due to non-payment of premiums, earlier it could be renewed within five years. Now, it has been reduced to two years. It has to be changed back to five years,” he said.
Life Insurance Agents Federation of India-Vellore Divisional Council president N. Sakthi, treasurer K. Murali and All-India Executive Committee member P. Mayakkannan spoke on the occasion.
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No fixed salary
J.K.N. Palani, chairman of the All India Political Liaison Committee, pointed out that as there was no fixed salary for LIC agents at present, the protesters demanded that the Union government fix a minimum salary of ₹18,000 throughout the country for agents.
“Our demands included the removal of Goods and Services Tax (GST) imposed on the payment of insurance premium,” he said.
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“For normal policies, GST of 4.5% is imposed on the first year and for group insurance GST of 18% is enforced. This has to be removed,” he said.