The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has extended the deadline for insurance companies to issue new health insurance policies in electronic form and without the requirement of physically signed proposal form (wet signatures) till March 31, 2022.

This is not the first time that the insurance regulatory body decided to extend the deadline. In the first instance, the exemption for wet signature on an insurance policy was valid till March 31, 2021. Then, it was extended till September 30, 2021 amid the second wave of Covid-19.

IRDAI said that it decided to further push the deadline till March next year in view of the continuing situation of Covid pandemic.

"In partial modification of Clause No. 5 of the within referred circular dated 10th September, 2020 the timelines for (a) Issuance of electronic policies and (b) dispensing with physical signatures and wet signature on the proposal form in respect of health insurance policies, stand extended up to March 31,2022," IRDAI stated in a notification on Tuesday.

Earlier, IRDAI had permitted health and general insurers to obtain consent of prospective policy holders through a duly validated One Time Password (OTP), then dispensing with the practice of getting wet signature. The regulator had also exempted the insurers from mandatorily sending hard copy of the document to policy holders. However, the policies will have to be sent through electronic mode on the registered e-mail.

Insurers, IRDAI said, can obtain customer's consent, without requiring wet signature on the hard copy, through OTP, through registered e-mail or mobile.