KOLKATA: Payment
of life insurance premium, one of the mostfavoured tax-saving options
for Indians, now faces the demonetisation test. With thousands opting to
pay their LIC premium online to avoid spending cash, there were
complaints of server crash at the insurance behemoth on Tuesday and
Wednesday.
Although the situation eased on Thursday, which is a government holiday, customers rue the harrowing time they faced in downloading premium receipts.
LIC officials said the problem was the same payment gateway overload that had led to stalling of plastic card payment at crowded bars and restaurants on weekends during the first few weeks of demonetisation.
An LIC official in city told TOI that the PSU insurer's premium collection had dipped drastically over Tuesday and Wednesday . "Even those paying by cheque faced trouble as we could not generate receipts," he said. The problem was not just confined to customers in Kolkata, but felt equally by those posted in other Indian cities.
"For three days, the LIC office in Hyderabad tried in vain to download certificates from Kolkata. After several visits and endless calls, I was finally informed of a big server problem in entire east India," said B Majumdar, a media executive. "There were many people from Kolkata who had queued up at the LIC office here after failing to download certificates. The customer care in Hyderabad said it will take more time. As a result, I am staring at huge tax deductions as the last date for submission of documents in my office is over," he added.
A senior LIC official in Kolkata said online premium payment was up since demonetisation and this could have put pressure on the network. "Being a PSU, we have BSNL connection, which was affected," he said.
Although the situation eased on Thursday, which is a government holiday, customers rue the harrowing time they faced in downloading premium receipts.
LIC officials said the problem was the same payment gateway overload that had led to stalling of plastic card payment at crowded bars and restaurants on weekends during the first few weeks of demonetisation.
An LIC official in city told TOI that the PSU insurer's premium collection had dipped drastically over Tuesday and Wednesday . "Even those paying by cheque faced trouble as we could not generate receipts," he said. The problem was not just confined to customers in Kolkata, but felt equally by those posted in other Indian cities.
"For three days, the LIC office in Hyderabad tried in vain to download certificates from Kolkata. After several visits and endless calls, I was finally informed of a big server problem in entire east India," said B Majumdar, a media executive. "There were many people from Kolkata who had queued up at the LIC office here after failing to download certificates. The customer care in Hyderabad said it will take more time. As a result, I am staring at huge tax deductions as the last date for submission of documents in my office is over," he added.
A senior LIC official in Kolkata said online premium payment was up since demonetisation and this could have put pressure on the network. "Being a PSU, we have BSNL connection, which was affected," he said.
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