Scope of EOBI scheme expanded

Employees Old Age Benefit Institution (EOBI) Chairman Zafar Iqbal on Thursday said that the government has extended the scope of EOBI scheme to all workers of the country and now self-employed, employees of small shops, houses, etc, can avail of benefit of the scheme.
Addressing members of Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI) on Thursday, he advised business community and others to register their employees with EOBI so that they should get benefits of EOBI scheme. He said EOBI has a total asset of Rs 130 billion including Rs 85 billion in assets and the remaining has been deposited with the banks and DFIs.
He said that EOBI will soon launch industrial units' survey to update its record with number of employees in the units. He admitted that industries and employees of EOBI have jointly made misdeclaration of number of employees. Those factories which made misdeclaration have been put on defaulters list, he added.
He said EOBI will soon sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to update its record of number of employees in industrial units and gather other information. Referring to old-age pension, he said pension book will be issued only on production of CNIC.
Replying another question, he said that EOBI is governed by the central government. However, if its control is handed over to provinces, its financial health may suffer, he added. Replying to a question to the former Chairman of KATI, Mian Zahid Husain, he said that suggestions from KATI and other trade bodies would be considered and the board of directors reconstituted in light of these suggestions. Presently, EOBI's board of directors comprised 16 members and 8 members each from private and government sector.
S M Muneer in his address suggested the EOBI chief to invest EOBI's funds in safe investment mode as it is hard earned money of poor employees. He said the country is facing very serious economic turmoil. He declared that if the people would not pay tax, the country would never progress.
He lamented that RGST has become a bone of contention countrywide and businessmen have rejected it but the finance minister does not have time to meet stakeholders. KATI Chairman Syed Johar Ali Qandhari in his address of welcome demanded of the EOBI chief to increase private sector's representation in the board of trustee of EOBI in order to improve its performance and services.
He called for reviving the system of checking of record as per old practice and decided the cases purely on merit. He further demanded not to issue "attachment of property" notices to the employers until and unless the cases would be decided. Senator, Abdul Haseeb Khan said that he would soon meet with the EOBI chief with a delegation of town associations to suggest improvement in EOBI performance.