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Government Delays Releasing Rs 1.5 Billion for SSF as Promised in Budget

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Government Delays Releasing Rs 1.5 Billion for SSF as Promised in Budget
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December 6: The government has delayed releasing Rs 1.5 billion for the Social Security Fund (SSF) as promised while announcing the budget.

While presenting the budget for the Fiscal Year 2020/21,  the then Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel had announced that the government would make contribution to SSF on behalf of the workers for two months as part of the policy to provide relief to the workers affected by the COVID pandemic. 

Following the announcement, the SSF also issued a notice to the companies that the employers need not deposit the amount of May and June of 2021. However, the government has not released the funds yet. 

According to the Social Security Fund, the Ministry of Finance should deposit around Rs 1.5 billion on behalf of the 175,000 contributors as per the announced made by the government. The SSF had submitted a claim to the Ministry of Finance through the Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Security this June. However, the SSF has not received any response so far, said Vivek Panthi, director of the SSF.

"We informed the contributors not to deposit the contributions of May and June as per the provisions in the budget," he said. However, the government has not released the funds yet," he added. He further said there is no need to panic as it is in the process of release. 

The government had to contribute to SSF on behalf of the employers at a time when the private sector was hit hard by the lockdown enforced to curb coronavirus infections. The government had announced to contribute more than one billion rupees. 

According to the officials of the Ministry of Finance, the fund will be released soon. They say that the process has been delayed since there are other priorities than this issue.

The record of the SSF shows the number of employees joining the fund is increasing in the post-pandemic period. As of December 1, a total of 15,892 employers have joined the fund while 298,000 employees have been listed in SSF.

The fund has collected Rs. 10.73 billion from contributors during this period. More than 10,600 contributors have claimed facilities from the fund and Rs. 481.2 million has been paid for the claims. 

 

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