NICL survives despite odds, says executive director

KARACHI: The Executive Director, National Insurance Company Limited (NICL), Tariq Aziz, has claimed that once the company was known for scandals is now emerging as one of the top government performers.

Talking to ‘The News’, Tariq Aziz said the NICL was providing general insurance coverage to ‘state-owned moveable and immoveable assets’, local authorities and statutory corporations. He added that the NICL, after having gone through tough time in the recent past, has now emerged as one of the top gainers and standing on financial credibility with one of the highest taxpayers.

The executive director said that the company had achieved Rs10 billion plus record premium during the year 2019, supported by profitable business growth and strong investment ventures. He added that it was the first time that a company had ever attained a target of two digit premium.

Aziz concluded that the underwriting premium was reported to be 7.1 billion in the year 2018 and now at the end of the year 2019, the underwriting premium was collected well over Rs10 billion. He added that it was an achievement of the current government as the stigma associated with the company was now shifted to commendation with 41 per cent growth in underwriting the premium during the year 2019.

Replying to a question, the executive director said the NICL had emerged as a highly profitable government entity with extraordinary performance to serve their valued and prestigious clients. He appreciated the clients and said that it could not be done without the ultimate support of valuable clients, who kept their faith during the tough period, and kept their trust.

Meanwhile, the management of NICL was highly optimistic for the year 2020 as the roadmap had already been chalked out by the Board of Directors (BoD) and acting-CEO, Aziz added. He said the NICL had attained its objective without losing business or clients, while some new prospective clients were added to their portfolio.

Aziz concluded that it was due to the current management that the NICL was working as paperless organisation from January 01, 2020, by using PITB e-filing system, adding that the NICL was one of the government organisations that had adopted e-filing and digitization.