The government should lower the tax rate, of 26-27%, on non-life insurance, including that for crop or agriculture insurance, to around the rate on life insurance, which is 2%, according to Mr Jaime Aristotle Alip, chairman emeritus and founder of the country's largest microfinance firm CARD MRI (Centre for Agriculture and Rural Development - Mutually Reinforcing Institutions).
“If you want private sector participation, you must level the playing field. You should lower non-life premium tax (including tax on crop or agriculture insurance),” he said in a recent webinar hosted by the Southeast Asian Regional Centre for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture.
“Lawmakers should make non-life insurance affordable,” Mr Alip said. He suggested that the government subsidise agricultural insurance. “It will be the law of numbers and the law of efficiency (that will work).”
