I wish to highlight some issued related to the Employees’ Old-age Benefits Institution (EOBI).
KARACHI: I wish to highlight some issued related to the Employees’ Old-age Benefits Institution (EOBI).
I served as a general manager in a government corporation for 25 years. After retirement, the EOBI paid me only Rs1,320 per month till June 2007, after which the amount was revised to Rs1,500. In October 2008, when the inflation rate was at its historic peak of 25.35 per cent, the amount was raised by Rs500 to Rs2,000 per month, and later in November 2010 to Rs3,000.
With rising inflation, it is rather unfair to expect a pensioner to survive on such a paltry amount. They have to travel to banks for collection of the EOBI pension and incur conveyance expenses from the pension amount in the wake of the ever-increasing petrol prices. It has been suggested multiple times to the government that it deposit the pension amount in the pensioners’ bank accounts to provide them with some convenience but nothing has been done in this regard. Senior citizens need to be honoured for all they have done for their families, society and the country.
I request the government to increase the amount of pension paid by the EOBI by at least 100 per cent in the coming budget in order to bring it to a respectable level. I would also request the authorities to take measures to deposit the amount in the pensioners’ accounts directly.
Shamim Sagher
Published in The Express Tribune, April 13th, 2012.
