Maximum plaints filed against insurers last year

NEW DELHI : Insurance companies may have the most reassuring taglines, but they are the ones most number of consumers are angry with. Insurance sector accounted for the maximum 21.2% of all complaints filed in various consumer forums last year, said a person who has access to the data.

As many as 35,685 complaints were registered against insurance sector in 2016-17, out of which 27,313, or more than three-fourths, are still pending before consumer courts across national, state and district levels, the person said.

Housing sector attracted the second highest number of consumer complaints last year at 23,185 out of which only 6,319 complaints have been addressed so far.It was followed by banking and electricity sectors, receiving 14,940 and 13,011 complaints, respectively .


Experts said addressing consumer complaints is affected by the lack of judges and members in consumer forums. There are 307 vacancies for members in the consumer fora, said the person cited earlier.

An official from the department of consumer affairs said it's mostly for states to fill this gap as most of the vacancies are in state and district commissions.