Fear of the National Accountability Bureau [NAB] pending litigation has hit the performance of the Employee’s Old-Age Benefits Institution [EOBI] as the number of ‘active employer’s registered with the organization has declined to 84,811 as opposed to 86,587 in 2013, it has emerged.
It appears that an important institution like EOBI is not on the government’s priority list since it has so far not appointed any officer as the chairman of the organization that has been without a head for the last couple of months. The EOBI was established in April 1976 with an objective to ensure payment of a pension or social insurance to either the persons insured with the institution or their heirs in case of death or disability.
According to the EOBI’s statistics, currently the number of active registered employers is 84,811 and the number of persons insured with the organisation is 8.6 million. Only a decade before, 5.6m were insured with the EOBI.
Investment portfolio of EOBI stands at Rs375 billion, mainly because of rise in its properties’ market rates
In 2013, the total number of registered employers was 86,587 and in 2021 the number stands at 130,530.
However, a senior EOBI official said that of the 130,530 registered employers, only 84,811 are ‘active’ as during the last few years 41,685 employers had closed their business and 4,023 had been de-registered.
He said following a suo motu notice by the apex court and subsequent proceedings of NAB, the board of EOBI not only restrained itself from investing in the stock market and properties but it also stopped executing and expediting its ongoing projects.
