May 4: The former government led by KP Oli had introduced the Social Security Fund (SSF) claiming it to be the beginning of a new era. Companies have added Rs 10.78 billion in one year to the contribution-based social security fund. The contribution amount which was Rs. 5.45 billion on April 3 last year has reached Rs 16.23 billion by April 30 this year.

According to the investment procedure of the Social Security Fund, the amount deposited in the fund can be invested in government bonds, shares, debentures, mutual funds and fixed assets. The contributors’ money has already been invested in fixed deposit accounts, debentures, mutual funds, etc, said Vivek Panthi, director of the fund. According to him, the fund is getting interest at the rate of up to 8 percent per annum on the amount deposited in the fixed deposit accounts. According to the director, 130,547 contributors working in 3,267 organization have contributed to the fund during this period.

Although the government has tried to include government employees working in contract basis in public enterprises for two consecutive years in the social security scheme, it has failed to do so. Even though such programme was announced in the budget of the current and previous fiscal years, the officials of the fund say that the process could not move ahead due to the objection by the finance ministry.

The government had announced in the budget of the current fiscal year that the informal sector workers would be included in the social security programme. So far, no attempt has been made to include them in this scheme.

Although the Social Security Fund has been urging the private sector to get listed, the employees of banks and financial institutions in particular have not agreed to it.