KATHMANDU: After a fragile response from the ‘intended’ public and cold retort from the employers, the government has reloaded its Social Security Fund project with five more schemes expected to be lucrative especially to the employees.

Formerly, the government had launched this ambitious project and sought significant participation of both the employing companies, institutions and employees alike. However, finding the scheme far less promising than the ones in  the Provident Fund and the Citizen’s Investment Fund, the ‘targeted’ people showed cold response to it, which finally led to infusing more schemes ranging from home and land purchase loan, education loan,  to the security scheme in the situation of unemployment.

The government has appealed to the employing agencies, companies and the employees to get enrolled with the new scheme. With these new provisions, the government anticipates wider participation from the stakeholders.

Prior to it, the employees contributing to the Fund could get four types of social security benefits but now with the new provisions, they are liable to claim for nine such benefits.

According to Kapil Mani Gyawali, the Executive Director of Social Security Fund, the depositors can apply for 10 million rupees as home and land purchase loan, 3.5 million as education loan, and 2.5 million as social loan when the Fund shall provide loan up to 70% of the goods and assets forwarded for the purpose.

Formerly, the fund had the provisions to pay for Medical, Health and Maternity Safety Scheme, Accident and Disability Protection Scheme, Dependent Family Protection Scheme, and Old Age Protection Scheme in which payment would be proportionate to the amount collected in the account of the individual.

Gyawali informed that the board of directors of the Fund and the Ministry for Labor, Employment and Social Security had already nodded affirmatively to the schemes.

However, the newly made Procedure for the Regulation of Social Security Fund has the provision demanding the contributors of the fund to mortgage something for the loan facility.

Depositors can apply for education loans to address their own educational needs or those of their children when they can apply for the social loan not exceeding 2.5 million rupees. To make themselves eligible to entertain such a loan facility the employees should have contributed to the Fund at least for 3 years. The loan period shall be 5-15 years and the interest levied for the loan shall be nominal.

The government had introduced the schemes relating to the social security fund keeping the needs of the workers in mind, so it is planning to enhance the security and benefit the workers more.

90 million in the fund!

According to the Fund, only 9 thousand employers with around 100 thousand employees have registered in the social security fund scheme launched since last year. This has generated nearly 90 million rupees in the fund and 2 of the contributors are getting monthly benefits from it.

The government has set 13 thousand 4 hundred 50 rupees as the minimum scale for the labors working in the industrial sector.

As per the provision,11% of the salary of the workers shall be deducted and added to the 20% additional amount contributed by the employers to be sent to the Fund. Once in the Fund, the government shall add more to make 31% of the income as the deposit. The fund has expanded the deadline for registration for one more month making it last till 30th November.