EOBI asks private firms to pay their share in KP pensions

KOHAT: The Employees Old-Age Benefits Institution (EOBI) has asked hundreds of defaulting and unregistered private organisations to pay their share of pension so that the helpless and heirs of deceased persons can get the government facility at the time of need.

Thousands of private employees are deprived of the pension facility provided by the EOBI due to lack of awareness or cheating by the organisations.

EOBI assistant director, Kohat, Ateeq ur Rehman, told Dawn on Monday that offices the organisations which did not register with the institution were liable to be sealed under the 1967 Land Revenue Act. He said that hundreds of private organisations were not willing to be registered with EOBI so as to avoid payment of their share in the pension.

Mr Rehman said there were 351 private registered firms whereas only 120 were paying their share and rest were defaulters in Kohat.

He said the major problem was lack of awareness among the illiterate workers who had no courage to demand the facility.

He said under the rules an organisation must pay Rs650 per month and deduct Rs130 per month from the employee’s salary which could be paid to the four categories of pensioners.

The EOBI official explained that according to first category an employee was eligible for pension if he attained age of 60 with 20 years of service.

The other was for heirs when an employee died after three years of service. Similarly, a handicapped person could avail the facility after five years of service. The fourth category was payment of compensation when an employee could not complete 15 years of service and became 60 years of age.

Mr Rehman said if an employee reached the age of 60 and did not contact EOBI in one or more years his case would be decided by the regional claim committee. He said defaulters were sent five to seven notices and if they failed to comply their offices were sealed.

He said if the number of registered employees reached 20,000 the Kohat office would become regional office and work in the whole division, including Hangu and Karak.