ISLAMABAD, Feb 26 (APP):The Employees Old-Age Benefit Institutions (EOBI) Wednesday pointed out that it had not sustained any financial loss during financial year 2018-19 due to previous increase in pension amount from Rs 5, 250 to Rs6, 500.
Clarifying a news item published in a national daily, saying ‘EOBI to further record
loss of Rs 18 billion annually’, the EOBI, in a statement, said the department’s annual budget stood at Rs 50.96 billion during the fiscal year 2018-19.
Giving breakup, it said the EOBI had collected Rs20.75 billion from the registered employers and received grant of Rs2.49 billion from the federal government, besides generating income of Rs 27.41 billion from its annual investments.
The annual budget in the last fiscal year also included other income amounting to
Rs310 million. Out of total annual budget, the EOBI disbursed around Rs31.74 billion among its pensioners during the last fiscal year while Rs1.7 billion were spent in
terms of administrative management expenses.
The EOBI pointed out that it had kept a surplus budget of Rs 17.44 billion during
the last fiscal year and did not sustain any loss.
Moreover, the institution, during the current fiscal year (2019-2020) was expecting around Rs 35.8 billion and Rs 23 billion on account of its investment income and total contribution collection, respectively.
The EOBI said that the expected revenue collection for the financial year 2019-20
could easily cater the total pay-outs of Rs 43.9 billion inclusive of administrative and development expenditure.
After thoroughly examining all the factors affecting viability of the scheme, the
EOBI’s Board of Trustees had approved the increase in pension from Rs 6,500 to
Rs 8,500 which would be forwarded to the federal cabinet for approval, it added.
The EOBI also clarified that the proposed increase in EOBI pension would take
effect from January 2020, rather than September 2018 as wrongly communicated
in the news item.