Jordan: Motor insurers resume granting 15% discount on premiums
Source: Middle East Insurance Review | Oct 2019
The Jordan Insurance Federation (JIF) said insurers have, after a two-month hiatus, resumed granting a 15% discount on premiums for vehicles with a clean traffic record in the previous year.
The discount scheme was resumed on 1 September, reported the newspaper Ad-Dustour.
This followed the government’s abolition of regulations obligating vehicle owners to prove that they had not committed traffic violations when requesting a reduction in premiums when they sought renewal of their compulsory motor third party liability insurance cover.
The move by the government resolves an issue for insurers and vehicle owners about how proof of a clean traffic record is to be obtained. Previously, regulations required the insurance applicant to submit the needed certification. In July, the Greater Amman Municipality had made a unilateral decision to stop providing drivers with the required certification, following the installation of an electronic linkage between the municipal government and insurers that allows the latter to check traffic records of drivers. Insurers, on their part, then had said that they could not grant the 15% discount because of the prevailing regulations.
Mr Maher Al-Hussein, JIF director, said for vehicles that had motor insurance renewed during July and August and which had been eligible for the discount, it would be difficult to apply the discount retrospectively because the related premiums had been paid to the insurer and sales tax paid to the Finance Ministry. He suggested that in such cases, to enjoy the 15% discount, the alternative would be to cancel the insurance policy that had been renewed in the past two months and buy a new policy. M