| Insurers cannot reach an agreement with the Ministry of Finance Tomorrow the government will receive tariffs developed by the Ministry of Finance for compulsory liability insurance of car owners. The day before, the Russian Union of Auto Insurers (RUA) - a trade union that includes the country's largest insurance companies (Ingosstrakh, Rosgosstrakh, ROSNO, Military Insurance Company, Soglasie, etc.) - once again tried to explain that these rates were too low. RSA even sent a letter to Prime Minister Kasyanov asking him to “approach this issue in the most balanced way possible, taking into account all market and social factors.”
Let us recall that the basic tariff, as calculated by the ministry, was 1,978 rubles. RSA President Andrey Slepnev is convinced that it “should be 30% higher.” “The Ministry of Finance did not take into account a number of factors, such as an increase in accident rates (in the last year alone the number of insured events increased by 20%), an increase in the cost of spare parts and repairs, as well as the inevitable increase in payments for compensation for damage to the life and health of citizens,” says Mr. Slepnev.
Insurers themselves believe that the introduction of low tariffs will result in unnecessary costs for them. As the head of the Soglasie company, Igor Zhuk, emphasized, insurers will most likely “require additional contributions in order to ensure the effect of the law throughout Russia.” And the costs of insuring the state vehicle fleet and compensation for the disabled that were not included in the 2003 budget “will fall on the shoulders of auto insurers,” he believes.
According to Mr. Slepnev, the introduction of a mandatory “automobile license” (the law should come into force on July 1) will require about $150 million. Fees, approximately equal in amount to payments, will range from $700 million to $1 billion. The head of the RSA said correspondent of the newspaper Vremya Novostey how these figures were calculated: last year there were 1.5 million road accidents in Russia, the cost of each of them on average was about $820. And not at all $200, as stated by Deputy General Director of ROSNO Leonid Melamed.
Finally, everyone except the Ministry of Finance unanimously reiterates that the introduction of reduced rates will undermine the entire compulsory car insurance system in just a couple of years, since payments for insured events will not be covered by new contracts. The collapse of the auto insurance policy, according to experts, will become a serious obstacle to the development of mass insurance in Russia. Alexey ROZHKOV |
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