The Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority (IDRA) has sparked a firestorm of legal controversy after issuing a gazette notification that significantly hikes registration renewal fees for insurance providers. The move, which quintuples the financial burden on the sector over the coming years, has faced immediate backlash from industry experts and stakeholders who question the statutory legitimacy of backdating such increases.
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A Conflict of Timelines
According to the Insurance Act 2010, all insurance firms must apply for their annual registration renewal by 30 November of the preceding year. Consequently, all companies submitted their applications and paid their fees for the 2026 calendar year by 30 November 2025.
However, on 4 February 2026—well after the renewal window had closed and the 2026 fiscal cycle had commenced—the IDRA published a gazette amending the ‘Insurance Business Registration Fee Rules 2012’. This amendment seeks to apply higher rates retrospectively to the 2026 term, a move experts argue is in direct conflict with Section 11(2) of the Insurance Act.
Escalating Fee Structure (2026–2032)
The new mandate shifts the fee calculation from a flat rate to a staggered, long-term increase based on gross premiums. Previously, the fee stood at 1 Taka per 1,000 Taka of gross premium. The revised schedule is as follows:
| Period | Revised Fee (per 1,000 Taka Gross Premium) |
| 2026 – 2028 | 2.50 Taka |
| 2029 – 2031 | 4.00 Taka |
| 2032 onwards | 5.00 Taka |
The “IIMS” Controversy and Financial Health
The IDRA justifies the hike by citing the need to provide “free” Integrated Insurance Management System (IIMS) services, construct its own headquarters, and establish professional bodies like the Actuarial Society of Bangladesh.
However, the industry remains sceptical. The IIMS service—formerly known as the controversial ‘UMP’—has been a bone of contention since 2018. Insurance companies argue that their internal systems are sufficient for sending SMS alerts to policyholders and that the IDRA’s insistence on using a third-party service provider unnecessarily inflates costs and risks data security.
Furthermore, the IDRA’s own financial records suggest the body is far from insolvent. In the 2020-21 fiscal year, the regulator reported a total income of 25.52 crore Taka, with nearly half originating from registration fees, resulting in a healthy surplus. By June 2021, the authority’s total fund stood at a robust 106.60 crore Taka.
Legal Ambiguity
Critics also point to Section 15(B) of the IDRA Act 2010, which empowers the regulator to “encourage the development of training centres,” but does not explicitly grant it the authority to establish and fund its own academic or professional institutions using industry levies. As the interim government looks to reform the sector following the July uprising, the insurance industry is calling for a reversal of these “arbitrary” fees and a return to transparent governance.