EOBI beneficiaries demand Rs15,000 a month pension

ISLAMABAD: The low pensionary amount of Rs5,250only per month has multiplied the suffering of the beneficiaries of Employees Old Age Benefit Institution (EOBI) especially industrial and mine workers who are finding difficult to meet both ends.

The pensioners registered with EOBI have demanded of the government to increase their pension from Rs5,250 up to at least Rs15,000 considering the prevailing price hike situation in the country.

According to the official source around 40 million industrial and mine workers are depositing Rs 20 billion to the EOBI on monthly basis and 0.5 million old age employees are receiving pension from the EOBI currently. These 40 million industrial and mine workers contribute one percent of their salary while their employers give five percent of their income monthly as secure investment for the old age to EOBI.

While the current reserves of the institution is around Rs300 billion, the source added.The mine and industrial workers have been depositing shares of their salaries since the year 1976 to the EOBI, and they started receiving pension of Rs800 at initial stages which was raised up to Rs1,200, Rs2,000 during the then governments and finally Rs3,600 during Pakistan People’s Party tenure.

The old age workers were expecting that the PML-N led government would raise this amount but instead of fully implementing the announced raise in budget of 10 percent each during 2013-14 and 2014-15, the government only increased the pension up to Rs5, 250 instead of 6,000.

Talking to APP, President All Pakistan EOBI Pensioners, Mubarik Hussain Gulshad, said more than 20, 000 industrial workers besides others are registered with the EOBI and receive pension from the institution of Rs5,250 per month. He said the government announces raise in pension for all its employees every year in the budget, but, unfortunately, no one is paying heed to the financial problems of the old age EOBI pensioners who are receiving such meager amount as pension to run their households.

Mubarik Hussain Gulshad said, “I am suffering from heart disease and high blood pressure and the amount spent on my treatment and medicines every month is more than my pension .

He said the EOBI is an institution which gets large amount through deducting a specific amount from the salaries of registered employees; however, it is not paying the sufficient amount to the registered workers as pension.

Another pensioner Ghulam Murtaza, who has served in a factory for 30 years, said the pensionary amount is not released in time, and some times we have to wait for the pensions for many days .

In every country, the government gives benefits to the senior citizens, but, unfortunately, in this country it is difficult for the old age people to live a dignified life he said.The EOBI Act 1976 was enforced with effect from April 01, 1976, to achieve the objective of Article 38 (C) of the Constitution by providing for compulsory social insurance.It extends the benefits of Old Age Pension, Survivor’s Pension, Invalidity Pension and Old Age Grant to the insured persons or their survivors.