KARACHI, Aug 18: The Employees Old-Age Benefit Institution (EOBI) has formulated a new data collection system to scale down the level of interaction between its field officers and commercial concerns.

Well-placed sources told Dawn on Wednesday that various commercial and industrial bodies often complained of harassment and blackmail by EOBI field officers, who were tasked to bring all those concerns in the contribution net of the EOBI which had 10 or more than 10 employees on their payroll.

Those establishments which are registered with the EOBI pay five per cent of the salaries of their employees. The EOBI came into operation on July 1, 1976, under the EOBI Act 1976, which applies to those industrial, business, trade and other establishments which have 10 or more employees. Such establishments include private schools, welfare organizations, large shops, factories, mills, etc.

The sources pointed out that the field officers could wheedle a lot of money out of commercial concerns by understating the number of employees working there. They added that most commercial establishments resorted to this unethical practice to evade the payment of contributions.

“Under the new data collection system, the field officers would gather information about unregistered commercial concerns in an indirect manner. They would procure information from social security organizations, the labour department, the bureau of statistics, the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation, the Pakistan Telecommunication Company, etc.”

According to the documents obtained by Dawn, some 47,257 establishments are registered with the EOBI, extending pension cover to as many as 1,770,705 people. The EOBI has collected Rs16.941 billion from employers since coming into operation. During this period, it has paid more than Rs8.7 billion to pensioners. The government paid a matching grant of Rs4.45 billion from July 1986 to July 1995.

When contacted, the EOBI chairman, M. Shafi Malik, admitted that still a large number of eligible establishments were not registered with the EOBI, thanks to an inefficient data collection system and ineptitude of EOBI field officers. “After having procured information about commercial concerns under the new system, the EOBI will be in a better position to net more contributions and provide pension cover to more people. Since the field officers collecting information will not come into contact with the commercial concerns, there will be little room for corruption.”

EOBI officials told Dawn that vigilance committees, comprising representatives of various chambers of commerce and industry and pension utility, had been set up which would bring moral pressure to bear upon those commercial concerns which were not registered with the EOBI.

They added that after identifying the eligible establishments, the EOBI would send them letters followed by official reminders, urging them to register themselves with the EOBI.

They said the EOBI was also simplifying the procedure of registration. “In all, a concern has to fill out three forms which they previously submitted one by one. Now they will be allowed to submit the forms in one go.”

They added that the labour division of the government was considering a self-assessment scheme and an amnesty scheme to expand the contribution net of the EOBI.