Presently public-sector Life Insurance Corporation of India – LIC is paying a hefty commission of two-percent to its agents on its popular pension-plan Jeevan Akshay where one-time heavy premium is payable to get life-time pension on a fixed rate which does not vary with regularly fluctuating rates of bank-interest. There are lucrative incentives of various types over and above two-percent commission. Knowledgeable takers of this plan easily bargain for pay-back of upto 2.5 percent from the agents. Persons without knowledge about such hefty pay-back are deprived of such extra benefit when they directly approach LIC-branches where usually every staff-member has some indirect agency to grab hefty commission.
LIC-agents deliberately avoid giving knowledge about wonderful pension-plan Pradhan Mantri Vaya Vandana Yojna -PMVVY exclusively for senior citizens aged above 60 years with rupees fifteen lakh as an upper limit of investment which is also routed through LIC with an annual interest-rate of eight percent, because commission to agents for policies under this plan is just rupees 1500 for a policy with one-time premium of rupees fifteen lakhs.
LIC should arrange that each branch of every public-sector bank may be associated with some LIC-branch where LIC-policies can be purchased. Banks can arrange instant issue of LIC-policies with authorisation received from LIC with some nominal commission like on PMVVY paid to banks. Commission and other incentives on Jeevan Akshay Plan presently payable to agents should be at par with those payable in respect of Pradhan Mantri Vaya Vandana Yojna.
SUBHASH CHANDRA AGRAWAL