Refund of EOBI and social security to textile industry

The Ministry of Textile Industry (Mintex), has announced a textile policy 2009-2014 which includes reimbursement of Employees Old Age benefits and Social Security Contribution for women and handicapped workers to textile industries, realising the importance of the textile industry in Pakistan.
The following are the salient features of the schemes of the reimbursement of the Employees Old Age benefits (EOBI) and Social Security (Sessi/Pessi) contribution to textile industry:
1. Applicable only to the extent of payments made by the textile units towards EOBI, SESSI and PESSI contribution for women workers and handicapped employed in the respective units. So refund of EOBI contribution will be 5 percent and refund of Sessi/Pessi contribution will be 6 percent which equals employers' contribution only.
2. Refund will be made for the period from 1st October 2009 till 30th June 2014. However Textile Units have been given time till 15 January 2012 to submit their refund claims of the first eight quarters (from 1st October 2009 to 30th September 2011) and later on the payment would start after verification of complete documents.
3. Available to all textile industry registered with the Ministry of Textile Industry and member of a textile association, which is registered with DTO.
4. The receipt of reimbursement payments shall be properly reflected in the books of accounts of the textile units.
5. Random, on-the-spot checks and audit shall be carried out "where deemed necessary" by the EOBI/Sessi, Textile Commissioner's Organisation (TCO).
6. Any textile unit which is in contravention of the provisions of these notifications, through acts of omission or commission, files fraudulent or false claim shall be liable to penalties under General Statistics Act No LXIX of 1975, SRO 11(KE)/79 of TCO.
The following procedure for claim for reimbursement of Employees Old Age benefits (EOBI) and Social Security (Sessi/Pessi) is cumbersome and lengthy unless checking cross-checking and verification procedure, on-line and manual, efficiently done at each stage, which is apparently impossible:
a. The textile unit has to submit information related to reimbursement of EOBI/Sessi/Pessi claims by login at www.rdacell.com (Website of RDA Cell of Mintex) and filing the form on line. In case of failure to submit the claims online, the claims would not be entertained.
b. The textile unit registered with Mintex and EOBI will submit the following to the EOBI:
i) Modified PE-01 and PR-01 Forms (Annexure I and II as per Notification);
ii) Revised PR-02A Form on Monthly basis (Annexure III as per Notification); and
iii) Application/claim Form shall be submitted to EOBI on Quarterly basis along with Form PR-01, Form PR-02A and Form PR-03 (Annexure IV as per Notification).
c. The textile unit registered with Mintex and Sessi/Pessi will submit the following to Sessi/Pessi:
i) R-1 Form (Annexure I as per Notification);
ii) Modified R-2/R-2(P) Form (Annexure II as per Notification);
iii) Revised C-1 Schedule Form on Monthly basis (Annexure III as per Notification); and
iv) Prescribed application on Quarterly basis along with Form R-1, Form R-2, Revised Form C-1 Schedule and Undertaking (Annexure V) (Annexure IV as per Notification).
d. EOBI/Sessi/Pessi after checking above documents shall forward the claim application of textile unit duly signed and verified to the TCO on a quarterly basis.
e. TCO after cross-checking and completing the internal verification process will make payment to the compliant textile unit.
The following notifications, letters etc have been issued by Mintex so far:
1. Mintex Notification No 1(I)/2009 dated 30th September 2009 (EOBI);
2. Mintex Notification No 3(6)/TID/09-P-1 dated 16th February 2010 (EOBI);
3. Mintex Notification No 3(21)/TID/10-P-1 dated 22nd April 2010 (SESSI);
4. Nintex Notification No 3(20)/TID/10-P-1 dated 22nd April 2010 (Sessi/Pessi);
5. TCO Letter No Tex/Com-12(84)/2010 dated 29th November 2011; and
6. Mintex RDA cell email dated 23rd November 2011 to all registered textile units.
Conclusion
This move of the present government is really excellent if it implements it. Undoubtedly, it will add to the performance of textile Industry and the economy of Pakistan will improve.
Apparently its implementation seems to be easy but in real sense it is not so due to the following factors/limitation:
1. The amount of refund involved in implementation of this scheme runs in to billions of rupees.
2. The deadline for submission of first eight quarters refund claims documents upto 15th January 2012 was impossible as there were a lot of changes made in the Scheme since 2009 and responsible officers of EOBI/Sessi/Pessi were not aware of this scheme. Whenever textile units asked for clarification they would say that they are not aware it and would let you know soon after contacting the high-ups.
3. How far the changes made in Notifications through TCO Letter No Tex/Com-12(84)/2010 dated 29the November 2011 and Mintex RDA cell email dated 23rd November 2011 have legal impact is an another question.
4. Officials from MINTEX RDA cell and TCO are actively involved in it and responding to Textile Units queries quickly and seem to be interested in its implementation. But this one sided action will not give desired results.
5. Not a single Textile Unit is in a position to submit required claim documents while this Scheme has been in place since 2009.