Chiefs of insurance companies are expected to table their demand for an Appellate Tribunal for the sector during their meeting with finance minister P Chidambaram.

A boss of a leading insurance company said unlike the Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI), there was no Appellate Tribunal at the Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority (IRDA).

Expressing his company’s grouse against the IRDA, “If that is formed, some of the decisions they are taking will go against them and that is one of the points that we are going to raise against them tomorrow.”

In the meeting on Tuesday, chiefs of insurance companies will also have discussion with IRDA chairman J Hari Narayan over ways to eliminate bottlenecks in the industry and boost growth.

Sources said the chiefs of insurance companies would seek the finance minister’s support on three topics, viz. issues in the industry, issues with the regulator and issues regarding taxes.

Industry players have complaints about alleged sluggish pace of IRDA’s work. As per a last year’s report, the IRDA consumed an average 344 days to process a health insurance product, and 135 and 105 days to process a general insurance and a life insurance product, respectively.

But, the regulator argues that the delay in processing products is due to the way the products are filed by the insurance companies.

The meeting is taing place at a time when the industry is witnessing a decline in new premium collections.