Social Security Programme : Panel seeks Rs 2.18b for scheme execution

KATHMANDU, MAR 25 -

The Social Security Fund Management Committee (SSFMC) has sought Rs 2.18 billion from the government for the next fiscal year to implement social security schemes.

The government has been raising 1 percent social security tax since 2009-10 to provide social security coverage to contributing workers.

The committee’s plans to implement three social security schemes—insurance coverage for maternity, workplace accident, and health hazards—beginning this year could not materialise due to the lack of adequate budget and procedural clarity. The government has provided just Rs 200 million to committee over the last two years.

“If the government provides the sought budget, we can implement all nine social security schemes next year, said Mahesh Baral, director at SSFMC.

Besides the three schemes, other schemes are unemployment insurance, insurance coverage for dependents, disability, old age, medical insurance and family insurance.

The government collected an estimated Rs 640 million in fiscal year 2009-10, Rs 740 million in 2010-11 and is expected to collect about Rs 1 billion in this fiscal year under social security tax, according to the committee. “We want the government to provide the entire amount, excluding the Rs 200 million that we have received,” said Baral.

The committee has requested the Labour Ministry to ask the amount from the Finance Ministry. However, the Labour Ministry is yet to do so. It says the committee has not submitted a concrete proposal on how the social security schemes would be implemented.

“How can we ask the Finance Ministry to release the amount without a detailed action plan and assurance of implementation of the programmes?” asked Buddhi Khadka, joint secretary at Labour Ministry.

Khadka, however, made it clear that there won’t be a problem to seek the amount from the Finance Ministry if the committee comes up with a detailed action plan and start implementing a few schemes. Currently, the Finance Ministry is holding most of the amount collected under the social security tax.

The implementation of the programme also faces another hurdle: absence of the Social Security Act. The Labour Ministry has approved the draft bill, but it is yet to forward it to other ministries concerned, Cabinet and the parliament.

The Labour Ministry says four bills and two policies under the labour reform

package, including the new Labour Act, Unemployment Benefit Act, Labour Commission Act, Trade Union Act, Labour Policy and Bonus Policy, are yet to be finalised, and once they are done with the process, all will be sent together.

There are also confusions that whether the scheme can be implemented without a separate act guiding the scheme. Stakeholders, however, are resented by the slow progress on the social security front. “The government is denying implementing social security schemes, seeking excuses,” said Achyut Pandey, a trade union leader. “The government should ensure safety of workers’ contribution and introduce social security for them as soon as possible.”

Source: Kantipur