AP Farmers Lose Rs.3,138 Cr in Claims; Blame Government

Kakinada: Farmers in Andhra Pradesh lost Rs.3,138 crore in insurance claims due to non-payment of share by the state government in 2022.

The farmers are paying insurance for weather-based seasonal crops. In 2022-2023-2024, the state government did not pay its share to either the central government or the insurance company.

The Union Government paid Rs.45,192.26 crore of insurance claims paid to the farmers in weather based crops for 2022-23 to the 2024 Kharif crop and the pending claims were of Rs.5,282 crore.

However, the Union agriculture ministry stated that not even a single rupee of insurance could be claimed out of the Rs.3,138.80 crore in Andhra Pradesh. AP's claims of Rs.2592.07 crore are pending due to non-payment of its share by the state.

The state share in subsidy and the farmers’ premium share are pending from the state government.

According to other data analyses, state-level convener of Bharatiya Agro and Economic Research, T Gopalakrishna, said: “While 97 percent of claims under PMFBY has been settled in nationwide and AP ranks first in terms of the highest values of pending dues, with payment of insurance claims exceeding Rs.1,842 croe still pending for the farmers of AP.”

He said, “As clearly indicated by government documents and the communications from insurance companies, the state government’s failure to pay its share of the premium subsidy either on time or in full is the reason why the farmers are unable to receive their full insurance claims. This was despite the fact that they suffered crop losses. This plunged them into financial distress.”

Gopalakrishna urged the state government to immediately pay the pending premium subsidy amounts including applicable interest to the respective insurance companies across all the districts for the Kharif 2023 and Kharif 2024, and Rabi/Kharif 2025 seasons under the PMFBY and weather based crop insurance schemes.

He recently received Rs.3931.2 for Kharif 2023 from the Bajaj General Insurance Company.

In the message, it was stated that an additional claim of 11,291.87 would be paid after the payment of the pending subsidy by the state government.

Gopalakrishna said that the state government is dutybound to pay its share of the insurance premium so as to avoid a problem for lakhs of farmers in AP.

State vice president of the Bharatiya Kisaan Sangh, Mutyala Srirama Prasad (Jameel), who received the claim from the central government share, said the payment of their insurance claims has been delayed due to the negligence of the state government in remitting its share of the premium.

The state government, he said, must engage in discussions with the insurance companies and ensure that an interest/penalty amount of 12 per cent as stipulated in the PMFBY guidelines is also paid to the farmers. The government must release detailed statistics regarding the total number of pending claims across the state-categorized by the district, season and insurance company on a public platform, he said.

Prasad also said that to prevent a recurrence of such a situation in the future, a clear order must be issued by the state government, stating this much: that starting from the Kharif 2025 season, the state’s share of the premium would be deposited in advance through an ESCROW account, in accordance with the PMFBY guidelines.

He also urged the central government to ensure that the claims of the farmers are cleared within 30 days without claiming the state government’s share.