Saturday, October 12, 2013

IDRA likely to hike premiums for garment insurance

Garment manufacturers are unlikely to enjoy low premium rates for long as the Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority (IDRA) looks set to hike rates for fire, marine and miscellaneous insurances for them.
Since 2004, the members of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association and Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association have been paying Tk 0.17 and Tk 0.19 as monthly premium on every Tk 100 for fire and marine insurance respectively.
In contrast, the members of the Bangladesh Textile Mills Association pay Tk 0.29 and Tk 0.30 respectively.
“It will take a couple of months to review the premium rates of all kinds of insurance,” M Shefaq Ahmed, president of IDRA, said, adding that not all premium rates would be increased.
Atiqul Islam, president of BGMEA, said the rise in premium would have an adverse effect on the garment industry, seeing the industry is going through a bad time.
He urged the IDRA to negotiate with the BGMEA before taking any decision.
Jahangir Alamin, president of BTMA, demanded premium rates for textile firms be brought down to the same level as garment firms.
“Our textile mills work as a backward linkage to garments firm affiliated with BGMEA and BKMEA. So the IDRA should give us the same facilities.”
BTMA has 1,370 members with investment of Tk 30,000 crore, according to Alamin.

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