Chennai, March 30 (TIWN) In order to make the motor insurance market a level playing field, the insurance regulator should make third party insurance policies portable, industry experts said.

Such a facility will also clean up the market, they added.  More than 20 years after the Indian general insurance industry was opened up, the new vehicle insurance is anti-competitive and the third party liability portion is under administrative pricing mechanism (APM), which is fixed by the government. 

The Supreme Court had ruled that a new two-wheeler or a private car should have a third party liability insurance cover for five and three years, respectively.  "Third party insurance cover of three years and five years for new cars and two-wheelers, respectively, is the fall out of the Supreme Court's ruling way back in July, 2018, after considering the recommendation of the Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety," D. Varadarajan, Supreme Court advocate specialising in company/competition/insurance laws, told IANS. 

"However, there arises unintended handicap for the new and not big general insurers, as they do not have established partnerships with big automotive dealerships, and buyers of automobiles are left with a few select insurers to choose from the stable of automotive dealers, and in the bargain, customers are stuck with a particular insurance company for three years or five years, as the case may be, by paying upfront TP (third party) premium for those many years," he added.