IRDA has asked insurance companies to instruct their marketing intermediaries including insurance agents not to use 10 digit numbers for telemarketing activities.
Through a circular, the insurance regulator has asked the telemarketers to register themselves with Telephone Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and use telephone number starting from ‘140’. IRDA has also instructed them not to make commercial calls or send SMSs to consumers who are registered with National Customer Preference Register (NCPR). NCPR enables mobile users to restrict incoming of commercial calls in their numbers.
IRDA says, “It has been brought to the notice of the authority by the chairman of TRAI that some of the insurance companies and their marketing intermediaries including agents are engaging telemarketers, not registered with TRAI’s regulation, to promote various products or services to customers, in breach of TRAI’s Regulation. These unregistered telemarketers use their normal telephone connections for making commercial calls and sending SMSs to customers registered under NCPR resulting in a lot of customer grievance which is a grave concern.”