KARACHI, July 7: The governing body of the Sindh Employees Social Security Institution (SESSI) approved its budget of Rs1, 015.063 million for the fiscal 2006-07 showing a surplus of Rs66.241 million.
The budget was presented by SESSI Commissioner Rasool Bux Phulpoto in a meeting held under the chairmanship of the Sindh Labour and Industries Minister, Mohammad Adil Siddiqui, at the SESSI head office here on Friday.
In his presidential remarks the minister, who is also the chairman of the SESSI's governing body, appreciated the institution’s pace of progress.
Mr Siddiqui observed that the social security contribution had been consistently increasing along with the number of secured workers. However, he called for further increase in the number of secured workers to 400,000 during the current financial year.
The minister also appreciated the efforts of the SESSI commissioner and his team for achieving the targets. The members of the governing body, Sheikh Manzar Alam, Qamoos Gul Khattak, Mirza Baqar Hussain also appreciated the budget allocations and observed that the social security scheme had proved more effective during the recent period.
Earlier, highlighting the budget's salient features, Mr Phulpoto said that the parameters on which the budget was based was the realisation that the primary aim of this institution was to provide maximum benefits to secured workers and their dependants.
As such, he said, effort had been made to make the budget as much workers-friendly as possible by reducing the establishment cost and maximising the welfare activities.
Giving outlines of the salient features of the budget, the meeting was informed that during 2006-07 the institution anticipated a total income of Rs1015.063 million with expenditures to stand at Rs948.822 million.
The expenditure of Rs948.822 million includes medical care Rs676.405 million, cash benefits Rs31.333 million, development Rs27 million, administration Rs196.084 million, unforeseen expenditure Rs15 million, loans and advances Rs3 million.
The allocation for medical care includes Rs104.200 million for the purchase of medicines which is higher by Rs11.200 million over the previous years.
The SESSI will spend about 71 per cent of its budget on medical care. It has established a network of 48 medical outlets all over the province including 4 hospitals, 5 medical centres and 39 dispensaries.
The meeting was informed that a modern CT scan machine had been provided to the KVSS Hospital while Dhabeji and Nooriabad medical centres and Polyclinic Sukkur had been upgraded by establishing a laboratory, installing an X-ray machine, etc. for providing better medical facilities to the secured workers and their dependents. Besides, construction of Kidney Centre Landhi has been completed by Sindh Workers Welfare Board and will soon be handed over to the SESSI, it was further informed.
As regards cash benefits, the SESSI pays benefits in case of sickness, employment injury, maternity, disability and other exigencies. For this purpose an amount of Rs31.333 million has been allocated in the fiscal 2006-07. In order to pay cash benefits, the institution has established 25 pay offices throughout the province. During the fiscal, around 26,600 new workers will also be covered by the SESSI; the governing body was told.—APP
