April 27: Nepal Insurance Authority (NIA) has stated that only 116,638 insurance agents have renewed their license by mid-April this year. This is just 52.58 percent of the total agents who have to renew their licenses.

According to the latest data received from the authority, the number of insurance agents in Nepal is 264,526, including 42,711 new agents who do not need to renew their license immediately.

As per the provisions of the Insurance Act 2079 issued on November 8, new agents must renew their license every three years. In the case of agents who have already taken the license before November 8, they should renew it by mid-April according to the provisions of the Insurance Act 2049. As per the authority, the number of licensed agents before the implementation of the Insurance Act 2079 is 221,815.

Nanda Prasad Tiwari, president of the Nepal Insurance Professional’s Society says that most of the agents do not know that they have to renew the license online. In addition, when trying to renew the license, the authority's server is often down, so agents who want to renew online are also not able to renew on time.

In Tiwari's estimation, the current economic recession has also had an indirect effect on the renewal of agents’ license. He says, “Since the business is at a standstill, most of the agents are not willing to renew. In addition to that, some agents have received the license and are not even working as an agent.”

Nirmal Adhikari, information officer of the authority, said that with the implementation of the one agent, one insurance company policy, the number of agents renewing their licenses has decreased.

Regarding the agents’ complaint that there are problems with the authority's server, the officer says that 'problems appear sometimes due to the new technology'. However, he mentioned that after noticing such problems, the authority has also made necessary improvements in the system.

According to the official, agents who have not renewed their license by mid-April will be able to renew it by paying an extra charge of Rs 100 by mid-June. Those who have not renewed within that period as will be able to renew by paying an additional fee of Rs 5 per day by mid-October. Licenses that are not renewed by mid-October will automatically be cancelled.