‘Private pension fund no threat to employees’ benefits’
Ravi Ladduwahetty
The government Thursday assured that the proposed Private Pension
Fund will not be a threat to the benefits that the employees and members
reap.
The contribution that the employee should be providing to the fund
will be two percent of his/her gross salary while the employer’s
contribution should also be a further two percent while at the time of
his/her retirement, Labour and Labour Relations Minister Gamini Lokuge
told a news conference at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute auditorium
Thursday.
He also said that the government would be fortifying the fund with
the injection of Rs 10 billion as introductory capital while annually
injecting a further Rs 500 million on an annual basis.
Accordingly, an employee would be getting 90 percent of the gratuity
at retirement along with the 98 percent of the EPF and profits. He also
stressed that one of the main reasons for bringing this fund was to
provide a solution for the employees who take loans or advances which
goes up to 75 percent of their earnings and because of the consequent
difficulties that they fall in to due to the soaring expenditure of
their families at the time of the retirement.
Treasury Secretary Dr P B Jayasundera said there was massive
opposition to the EPF at the time that it was brought up in 1953 but it
had rendered a yeoman service to the people over the years.
Sri Lanka Nidahas Sevaka Sangamaya General Secretary Leslie Devendra
also said that the debate on the pension scheme also brought a debate as
what the real retirement age should be when the Government employees’
retirement age being extended to 57 and there not being a clear cut age
for the retirement for the private sector. |