Special Assistant to Prime Minister Zulfiqar Bukhari has announced increase in EOBI pension from Rs. 6500 to Rs. 8500. He had earlier promised to increase pension to Rs. 15,000. The recent increase of Rs 2000 will definitely provide a much needed relief to the poverty stricken retired workers and their widows. Hence, this act is highly appreciated and hopefully the pension would be increased again in the near future.
The potential of EOBI is much more than its current performance. As every private establishment having five or more than five workers is bound to register and pay contribution to EOBI, hence the potential to receive contribution can be increased drastically by bringing more and more private unit in the EOBI net. But unfortunately EOBI's current performance is below par. The recently published Board of Trustees Minutes have revealed that EOBI is already working at half the strength sanctioned half a decade ago. More interestingly, while the private sector is increasing day by day, EOBI's human resource is on the decline since the last five years as no hiring has been done and the employees are retiring since most of the employees were hired in the previous century.
The problem is obvious as the increase in pension is not supported by increase in contributions. While the increase in pension may portray a sweet picture of the government in the eyes of the masses, but the fund is going to deplete with this increase. With no real strategy to increase the contributions and harness the ever increasing private sector, the organization's future is bleak at the moment.
It is excellent.
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