The SECP on Thursday released details of the new scheme to make things easy for the genuine certificate holders claimants. Under the new scheme, the excise and taxation department will ensure that all third party insurance certificates submitted at the time of payment of motor vehicle tax are issued by registered insurance/takaful companies. The ministry of interior has agreed with the SECP to ensure strict compliance.
The IAP has agreed to issue third party insurance certificates which provide for admission of liability "on a no fault basis". The compensation made under this policy will be as per the schedule of benefits of Workmen's Compensation Act 1923 prevalent capital benefits are Rs 200,000 per life, subject to an overall aggregate limit on one accident of Rs 10 million and compensation shall be payable to the third party without going to courts.
The SECP shall provide a list of registered insurance companies who are authorised to issue the certificates. Excise & taxation department shall only accept certificates issued by these entities. The IAP has drawn up a scale of charges, which would be followed by insurance/takaful companies.
To ensure that motor certificates issued by authorised insurers/takaful operators only are accepted by the concerned "excise and taxation" offices and for the success of the scheme, it was agreed that a close liaison be maintained by SECP and IAP with the relevant senior officials of the respective provinces and for this purpose SECP had senior level meetings in Sindh and Punjab provincial department.
In order to ensure that motor third party insurance certificates cannot be faked/forged easily, IAP will issue third party certificates on security paper with built in security features. Moreover, in order to minimise harassment from police officials, the IAP will design and introduce insurance tokens, which will be displayed by the insured vehicles on their windscreens.
On the same pattern, the IAP agreed to set up a website for maintaining database for valid motor third party insurance covers issued by their member companies. This website will assist the "Excise & Taxation" and other law enforcing agencies to determine genuineness of the insurance certificate being presented to them.
Under this scheme about seven million vehicles plying on the road, including more than 50 percent motorcycles, will have proper motor third party insurance cover, as against mere 10 percent vehicles having insurance cover from authorised insurance/takaful companies.
The SECP and the IAP would shortly launch a massive publicity and awareness campaign for launching the proposed scheme on March 31. The SECP has pointed out that the scheme was being launched on the directive of Prime Minister Mohammadmian Soomro that third party insurance coverage should be effective and as per law.
Recently, an inter-ministerial meeting discussed the proposal of the SECP for eliminating issuance of bogus motor third party compulsory insurance certificates by unauthorised persons/entities. The meeting was held on February 12 under the chairmanship of Federal Minister for Finance, Dr Salman Ali Shah.
The SECP Chairman Razi-ur-Rahman Khan briefed the meeting of the pros and cons of the SECP proposal to eliminate issuance of bogus third party insurance certificates.
The proposal developed by SECP, in consultation with the IAP recommends for an efficient and effective process to ensure that only authorised insurance companies issue third party insurance certificates and bogus certificates issued by bogus companies are not entertained.
The meeting agreed to SECP's proposal and gave a go ahead for its implementation. Subsequent to this, chairman SECP also held a meeting with IAP to review the proposal and finalise the implementation details.