Consumers across India can now hope to see the real benefits of lower pricing of motor and other insurance policies from January 2008. That is because the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority, or Irda, has advanced the deadline for detariffing, reports CNBC-TV18.
 
General insurance companies will be able to customise your car, home, health and personal accident policies based on your needs starting January next year. This would be in the second phase of the detarrifing process; the first phase allowed insurers the freedom to decide the pricing of their products, while the terms and conditions of all the policies remained the same.

The price war that started after the first phase of detarrifing saw premiums slashed by over 60% for all general insurance products. But the industry does not expect prices to come down further, as the customer will now choose a policy based on the cover as well as the price.

Fire, engineering and motor insurance are the areas likely to see the most changes. Products will be modified to suit the needs of customers and this means those, who make fewer claims will pay less for their insurance covers.

Also, companies would be able to offer combined products like car insurance along with personal accident covers. This would mean a lower administrative cost of the company, the benefit of which, will be passed on to the customers.

Officials from the General Insurance Council tell us that the three months advance will allow insurers to offer new modified products to customers when the policies are being renewed in January, instead of waiting another year, if the change happens only in April.