THIS is with reference to Nasim Ahmed’s letter ‘EOBI pension’ (July 2) regarding the amount of pension paid by the Employees’ Old-Age Benefits Institution (EOBI) and investment of EOBI funds in different schemes.

EOBI is a prime welfare organisation responsible for payment of pension benefits to industrial, commercial workers, etc., in the light of Article 38(c) of the constitution of Pakistan. The institution collects six per cent of the wages from employers and employees and pays pensions to over 400,000 workers by generating income from investments in government securities, equities and real estates.

EOBI is making all out efforts to serve the senior citizens of the country as it aims to provide social security benefits to every earning citizen of Pakistan. The minimum pension has been enhanced from Rs3000 per month to Rs3600 per month with effect from January 2012.

Keeping in view the difficulties of respected pensioners standing in big queues, we have introduced a new avenue for disbursement of pension through ‘Easy Paisa’ for the comfort and ease of our pensioners. All are being paid pension on revised rates from January 2012.

However, pensioners opting to receive pension from the NBP are facing difficulty due to the data issue in NBP’s IT system.

Hopefully, NBP will be able to overcome its data problem soon, so that pension could be disbursed on revised rates.

EOBI has guided its old, handicapped and widowed pensioners to go to the nearest ‘Easy Paisa’ franchise along with their original ID cards and pension book and transact their pension through any one of 16,000 ‘Easy Paisa’ outlets across the country.

EOBI is playing a significant role in alleviating poverty because millions of families are getting fully facilitated benefits from the EOBI scheme. It is in the priorities of our media officials to launch an effective national awareness campaign through the print and electronic media to educate the masses in general and stakeholders in particular about the benefits and facilities offered by EOBI.

QAMAR RIAZIn charge, Media Cell