More on Covid-19

MUMBAI: Life Insurance Corporation LIC ) on Saturday announced an extension of 30 days for payment of premium due in March and April 2020 to mitigate the hardships being faced by policyholders in the wake of COVID-19.For February premiums, where grace period was expiring after March 22, relaxation is allowed up to April 15, LIC said in a statement.Further, it said wherever policies can be revived without any evidence of good health, this can also be done online.LIC's policyholders can pay premiums through LIC's digital payment options without any service charge.It also informed that policyholders do not need to register on the website for paying premium but can directly pay by giving basic details.Premiums can also be paid by downloading mobile app LIC Pay Direct.Policy premiums are accepted through Net banking, Debit Card, Credit Card and on payment apps such as Paytm, PhonePe, Google Pay, BHIM, UPI among others.Premiums can also be paid at all IDBI and Axis Bank branches and in cash through Common Service Centres (CSC), operating at block level.The insurer assured its policyholders that the death claims arising due to COVID-19 will be treated at par with other causes of death and payments shall be made on an urgent basis.Coronavirus has already claimed many lives and efforts are being made by LIC officials to locate Covid-19 victims on the basis of lists provided by the government authorities to help the families.Already death claims due to COVID-19 under 16 policies have been settled without losing any time, it added.During the previous financial year, LIC has settled more than 7.5 lakh death claims with only 0.75 per cent of the total death claims reported remaining outstanding.LIC has also ensured that policy payments like survival benefit, policy maturity and annuities are made to policyholders on due date by crediting the amount into the bank account registered with LIC.These payments were more than two crore in numbers in 2019-20.