As the agricultural crisis is deepening and farmers are taking to the streets across the country, the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), a crop insurance scheme launched by the Narendra Modi government in 2016, is reportedly yielding enormous profits for private insurance companies, an RTI has revealed.
In two years, private insurance companies have profited at a rate of Rs 11 crore a day from the PMFBY, reported The Tribune. Out of the 18 insurance companies in the scheme, five are public companies and 13 are private companies. All companies have made a combined profit of Rs 15,795 crore in the last two years out of which, private companies have earned Rs 8,147 crore.
In 2016-17 financial year, the 13 private companies made a profit of Rs 3,283 crore and in 2017-18, their profit was Rs 4,863 crore, reported the Tribune.
Among the 13 private insurance companies, HDFC has the highest profits at Rs 1,816 crore, followed by Reliance at 1,361 crore, Universal Sompo General Insurance Company at Rs 1,195 crore, ICICI at Rs 1,193 crore and SBI General Insurance at Rs 1,059 crore.
The RTI was filed by Dinesh Chadha, an activist based in Ropar. Chadha told the Tribune, “The big corporate houses have been given bailouts in the name of poor farmers. The government owes answer to the people whether the scheme was started for the benefit of farmers or for big corporates?”
PMFBY was termed a ‘gigantic scam’ by journalist and farmers rights activists P Sainath, “It’s more an insurance scheme for the banks and insurance companies. The scheme’s design ensures the siphoning off of over giant sums of public money to private corporations and to a couple of public insurers (in line for privatisation).”