Tunisia: Motor TPL premiums hiked by 10%
Source: Middle East Insurance Review | Mar 2015
Motor third-party liability insurance premiums in Tunisia have been increased by 10% since February, according to the Vice President of the Tunisian Federation of Insurance Companies, Mr Lotfi Bezzargua. The increases apply to personal vehicles, trucks, farm vehicles and motorcycles.
However, premiums for voluntary auto insurance are lowered so as to keep the same total cost of car insurance unchanged, according to local media reports citing Mr Bezzargua.
The increase in auto third-party liability insurance premiums is aimed at reducing the huge losses caused by fraudulent means. Insurers suffer losses of TND150 million (US$77.6 million) or 10% of the sector’s turnover annually because of insurance fraud. Only a quarter of these fraudulent acts are uncovered.
Mr Bezzargua said that international companies are offering fraud detection services to Tunisian insurers to increase the percentage of uncovered fraud cases to 50%.
Insurers are also seeing frequent traffic accidents. In 2014, 7,971 road accidents were reported in Tunisia, leading to 1,565 deaths and 12,354 injured, reported the online newspaper African Manager. In comparison, in 2013, there were 8,809 road accidents leading to 1,499 deaths and 13,458 people injured. The main causes of the accidents were careless pedestrians, speeding and inattentive drivers.
TND1 = US$0.52