KARACHI, Jan 26: Federal Minister for Labour and Manpower, Mian Abdul Sattar Laleka, has said that he will visit all chambers and industrial associations to increase employers' registration and their contribution to make EOBI's pension scheme a great source of socio-economic change in pensioners' life.

He was speaking at EOBI's All Pakistan Zonal Heads Conference here at the EOBI House on Monday. Unlike the past, he said, this government was making every effort to provide maximum financial assistance and facilities to pensioners for their services to the nation. "More steps and plans were in the offing to ensure betterment of pensioners," he added.

The minister was informed by Chairman Employees Old-age Benefits Institution (EOBI) M. Shafi Malik that employers were reluctant to register themselves with the EOBI. They did not disclose the exact number of their employees and contribution made by them to the pensioners' scheme, Mr Malik said.

Mr Laleka said during his ministership Rs11.132 billion had been distributed among 235,000 registered pensioners out of Rs20.58 billion total contribution collected over the period. This amount had been increasing constantly as Rs841.10 million was distributed from July to Dec 31, 2003 against Rs777.24 million figure for the whole year of 2002 showing an increase of 63.86 million, he added.

He said that a total of Rs74.335 billion fund was available with the EOBI, which was being invested in best possible avenues to generate maximum income for pensioners. Investments were mainly diverted to recently de-regularized sectors, including telecommunication sector, he added.

The minister said that he had strictly implemented transparency and simplicity in giving cheques to pensioners. During the last 14 months of his ministership, he had received not a single complaint from pensioners in getting their cheques from the EOBI, he maintained.

"No case has been reported regarding commission by EOBI officials or missing of any pension cheque," he said. Unlike the past, he said, the balance sheet of EOBI was open to everybody. He said that anyone could make queries and know about the income, collections, distribution and expenditure of the institution. The minister hinted to take some decisions to further improve EOBI's financial status. -APP

Our staff reporter adds: At the EOBI's conference, presided over by the minister, it was revealed that 84,411 employees were registered with the EOBI from July to December 2003, as against over 69,211 during the corresponding period of previous year, showing an increase of over 15,200 employees.

Over 235,000 pensioners were getting the pension regularly every month and that they had been paid over Rs840 million during the period. The number of employers registered during the said period was over 1,288 as against 1,075 employers registered from July to Dec 2002 showing an increase of 20 per cent.

The federal minister said that the total contribution collected was over Rs1.297 billion as against Rs977 million during the comparative period showing an increase of Rs319 million - an increase of nearly 33 per cent.

He said that the investment income on equity was Rs851 million from July to December 2003 as against Rs141 million during the corresponding period of 2002. Total investment income on Dec 31, 2003 was Rs6.04 billion as against Rs4.36 billion on Dec 31, 2002, showing an increase of 38 per cent.

Reviewing the EOBI performance, Mr Laleka said that though the credibility of the organization had suffered a set back around a couple of years back, it had worked hard and had improved its performance.

He advised the officials to serve the pensioners, who had played their due role in the improvement of the national economy. Earlier, the EOBI chief Shafi Malik said that the organization would also review various development schemes being implemented by different organizations for their employees.

He said that efforts were also being made to computerize the entire record of various EOBI zones so that everybody could easily get the accurate information quickly.

Mr Malik called for the restoration of government contribution to the pensioners scheme, which remained suspended for the last few years. He said that he had raised the issue with the finance ministry, but the response was still awaited.