By Divyanshu Tripathi

 “Overall it was an average budget. We appreciate the government’s move to launch LIC’s IPO. This will help create awareness about insurance in the interiors of our country. The idea needs to be more towards shifting insurance to protection; people should be investing in their protection in a planned manner. The government should take measures to simplify the health insurance plans to counteract the mounting out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE). Though health insurance sector has gained momentum in tier 1 & tier 2 cities in recent years. However, there is a need to create awareness about the benefits of buying health insurance in tier 3 to tier 5 cities. The government should have incentivised the health insurance buyers by raising the deduction limit for medical insurance premium under Section 80D from Rs 25,000 to at least Rs 50,000 for self and family.

Women being the anchors of their respective families should have been especially incentivised. In 2018-19, women bought 103 lakh life insurance policies and contributed Rs 36,525 crore of premiums (individual life insurance new business). Besides, the removal of GST could have reduced the cost of a policy, making health insurance affordable for individual policyholders. However, it is great to see major income tax cuts for individuals, this would help them to do better financial planning and buy better insurance policies with more benefits.”

(The writer is the Co-founder and CEO of Easypolicy)