Govt collects Rs 640m as social security tax
KATHMANDU, NOV 27 -
The government collected Rs 640 million as social security fund last fiscal year (2010-11) from employees and workers of all government and private sector institutions. It seeks to use the fund for implementing social security schemes for contributors.
The government has maintained a separate account for the collection of social security fund in which one percent tax on the taxable income of salaried people from both the government and private sector is collected.
The government introduced the one percent tax for social security purposes in the fiscal year 2009-10 and has been continuing it since then. The government kept no record of the social security tax collected in the year 2009-10, but it is estimated that Rs 100 million was collected then.
“The government has already arranged the budget for the Social Security Fund Management Committee (SSFMC) in accordance with the collection of the social security tax,” Shanta Raj Subedi, the joint secretary at the Finance Ministry, said. “The amount collected in the last fiscal year will also be sent to the SSFMC in three installments this year.”
As tax cannot be directly transferred to another ministry and the finance ministry allocates the collected amount through the budgetary process.
The government had introduced the policy in order to expand social security coverage for all people in the long run, such as insurance coverage for workplace accident, reproductive health and health insurance, among others.
Although the policy was introduced three years ago, the government has failed to take concrete measures to implement the plan. As a Social Security Act is needed to implement the social security schemes, efforts made in this regard suffered a setback in the absence of the executive director at the SSFMC for the past three months.
“Although we have already prepared a draft of the social security bill, we have failed to continue discussions on it in the absence of the executive director,” SSFMC director Krishna Dhakal said. “We have also been unable to draft the modality of the social security schemes.”
Trade union leaders have criticised the government for failing to ensure social security coverage for workers. “The government announces attractive schemes but pays no heed to implement them,” said Umesh Upadhya, the general secretary of the General Federation of Nepalese Trade Union (Gefont).
An official from the All Nepal Trade Union Federation (Antuf) echoed Upadhya. “Such tendency of the government may invite industrial disruption in the future,” he said. The Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) has also stressed on the need to implement the scheme as soon as possible. Pashupati Murarka, the chairman of the employers’ council at the FNCCI, said the delay on the part of the government shows that it is ignoring the workers.
Source: Kantipur
