Prudential BSN Takaful Bhd (PruBSN) has set a target of achieving one million customer base by the year-end, supported by new products including the newly launched PruBSN Setia and PruBSN Impian.
PruBSN CMO Wan Saifulrizal Wan Ismail said the company now has about 850,000 customers and the one million target is achievable within this year.
“Given today’s economic environment and living conditions, they (customers) will need to enhance their existing coverage to fully support their protection needs. Typically, a person requires protection of at least 10 to 15 times their annual income to be adequately covered,” he told reporters at the launching ceremony in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
In addition to the two new takaful packaged solutions released on Monday, the takaful operator will be launching more products this year to achieve its desired client base.
PruBSN Setia is targeted at working adults looking to enhance their existing protection plans, while PruBSN Impian provides protection for children even before birth.
Both products are based on the operator’s flagship takaful plan, PruBSN AsasLink.
The takaful firm is a joint venture between UK-based insurer Prudential plc and government-owned Bank Simpanan Nasional (BSN), established in 2006 via a licence awarded by Bank Negara Malaysia.
In view of continued spikes in inflation, rising cost of living and increasingly expensive healthcare, Wan Saifulrizal said many working adults in Malaysia rely solely on their employers to provide medical benefits.
With PruBSN Setia, employees can take advantage of the multiple rider options to add on to their life insurance or takaful plans.
Meanwhile, PruBSN Impian provides expectant mothers with comprehensive pre-natal, medical, critical illness and savings solutions that accompany their child from as early as 14 weeks of pregnancy up to 100 years old.
Both solutions also allow for customers to add on HealthProtector, a medical rider which reimburses their hospitalisation and outpatient treatment expenses, without annual or lifetime limits.
On whether the upcoming implementation of the Sales and Services Tax (SST) would affect the takaful operator’s product pricing, Wan Saifulrizal said the company is awaiting further details from the government on what products and services will be taxed under SST.
“The Ministry of Finance has not released the exact scope of what will be covered by SST. However, prior to the Goods and Services Tax (GST), there was also SST, and during that SST regime, most of our products did not fall under SST.
“When GST was implemented, medical and accident types of coverage were impacted by GST. So, we will wait and see what the actual scope of SST is,” he said.
SST is set to be re-introduced on Sept 1, as a replacement for GST that was zero-rated beginning June this year from 6% previously.
Under SST, goods sales will incur 10% tax, while the provision of services will be taxed at 6%.
Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said on Tuesday that the sales tax at a rate of 5% and 10% applies to selected manufactured and imported products rather than all products, while the 6% services tax applies to selected services and not all services, unlike the GST.
No comments:
Post a Comment