Amazon India to provide free Covid-19 health insurance to sellers

NEW DELHI: Amazon India on Wednesday said it will provide free COVID-19 health insurance to its sellers in the country to help cover expenses around hospitalisation and treatment.

The insurance, which will be valid for one year after activation, will help cover expenses related to COVID-19 hospitalisation and treatment as well as ambulance assistance and ICU charges of up to Rs 50,000, Amazon India vice president seller services Gopal Pillai said.

Amazon will fully fund the premium for this health insurance and has partnered with Acko General Insurance (Acko) to manage policy delivery and handling of claims and reimbursements, he added.

The insurance will benefit lakhs of sellers on Amazon India's platform, Pillai said. He added that the insurance cover will be available for the proprietor of the seller entity and can be utilised by sellers who have had an active product listing on Amazon.in between January 2019 and May 26, 2020.

"We are facing an unprecedented situation that has affected the lives of millions of people around the world. In these difficult times, the health and safety of our sellers is of utmost importance to us. "While we sincerely hope none of our sellers need to use this insurance cover, we want to make sure they have a sense of security and one less thing to worry about and can focus on developing their business," Pillai said.

Amazon India will open a seven-day enrolment window during which sellers can enrol themselves by providing basic personal particulars and KYC documents. No medical tests will be required for registration. Once the requisite details are processed, a Unique Health Identification (UHID) number will be issued to the sellers by Acko, which they can use to file their claims (cashless) and reimbursements.

To claim COVID-19 related hospitalisation and treatment expenses, registered sellers will have to intimate Acko. A standard waiting period of 15 days will be applicable at the start of the insurance policy, the company said. Last month, Amazon India had slashed its commission fee by 50 per cent till June-end for sellers on its platform who sold goods worth Rs 10,000 or less before the coronavirus outbreak in India.

The benefits rolled out so far for sellers in the country in the form of insurance, commission fee waiver and others are "incremental" to Amazon's $1 billion investment plan for SMEs that was announced in January this year, Pillai said.

In April, Amazon India had also pledged Rs 10 crore to expand its pilot for bringing offline retailers and local shops onto its platform.

Source: The Times of India