in the wake of the unprecedented lockdown situation due to the coronavirus the insurance regulator has further increased the grace period for life insurance policies whose premium was due in march 2020 these policyholders can now pay if not paid their policy premium until may 31 2020as the lockdown has been further extended up to 17th may 2020 keeping in view the difficulty faced by some policyholders to renew the policies in time the authority has now allowed extended grace period up to 31st may 2020 for all policies where premium was due in the month of march 2020 stated the circular issued by the insurance regulatory and development authority of india irdai on may 9earlier on april 4 irdai had announced an additional grace period of 30 days for policies where premium fell due in the months of march and april 2020 this was done to provide relief to life insurance policyholders amid covid19 lockdownthe nationwide lockdown started on march 25 for 21 days since then it has been extended twice to may 17 this is the reason why irdai has allowed to extend the grace period up to may 31 for all life insurance policies whose premium was due in march keeping in view the difficulty faced by some policyholders to renew the policies in timethe irdai said all policy holders are requested to note that the objective of grace period allowed is to pay all the premiums due within that period so as to keep the policy coverage in forcelife insurance companies are equipped to provide facility to pay premiums online the policyholders are encouraged to make use of this provision so as to minimize their personal visit to the offices of the insurers as per the circularwhat it means for policyholderdhirendra mahyavanshi cofounder turtlemint a mumbai based insurtech company said that it is great gesture of the irdai to be considerate about the customers and also the insurers the grace period has been extended yet again for life insurance premium collection since all customers might not have the facility or equipped to pay the premiums online the extension would be welcomed by them the most he saidin the current scenario with the extension of lockdown salaried people as well as small business owners might have some issues to manage their cash flows mahyavanshi said that the extension of the grace period would come to the rescue of customers in order to enjoy the continuity benefit of the insurance plans by planning their expenses diligently in fact it would be a boon for the insurers as well so that they can continue to settle the claims on time as there wouldnt be a surge in the lapsed policies which might lead to cash flow issues for the insurers thus it is an overall winwin situation for all he addedpoint to noteif your health and motor insurance cover renewal dates had fallen between march 25 2020 and may 3 2020 you still have the time to renew