nagpur private general insurers may offer plans with less premium but customers often end up getting a raw deal claims the indian institute of insurance surveyors and loss assessors iiisla this is a body of independent professionals offering services to assess the extent of loss before claims for fire and automobile insurance are put up before the companies it is promoted by the insurance regulatory and development authority irdathe institutes president mahendra dhruva who was in the city to attend its national conference alleged that the issue had been taken up before the irda several times but the regulator has been indifferent citing examples he said at times the agents come up with offers of substantially less premium than the general rates however it is not disclosed that there will be no cover for losses due to flood or riots which would have been otherwise covered the clients are also kept in dark about excess charge this is a discount which the clients allow to the companies at the time of making a claim and in turn pay a less premium a proportionate amount is deducted from the claim amount paid by the company the excess charge has to be determined by the client however there is a rampant practice of the companies deciding the amount on their own the customer only comes to know about the deduction when a claim is made he added customers are also misled about the norm that once a claim is made no other company can offer a noclaim bonus agents also lure them by offering such a benefit which is eventually refused citing the norm claimed dhruva he said irda stance of this has been that it is for the consumer to remain alert dhruva added that the institute also made a representation before the standing committee on finance bill against the proposal to hike the upper limit of claims in which a surveyors service is not required the present act says that any claim upto rs 20000 can be decided by the company itself an amendment is proposed to hike the limit to rs 1 lakh this will leave many surveyors out of business moreover an independent professional is needed to give a fair view on the claim the average claim of family cars ranges from rs 20000 to rs 50000 itself the institute has also expressed concern over outsourcing of surveyors services around 10 firms are known to be engaging inexperienced or nonqualified persons though the assignment is undertaken by a qualified surveyor this certainly jeopardises consumers interest this being a specialised profession there has to be a check on such practice the issue has been put up before the standing committee too said dhruva