SSF has 100k contributors in four months

Kathmandu, Dec. 3

With the growing support from the private sector companies and employees, about 100,000 new contributors have been registered at the Social Security Fund (SSF) in the last four months.


The number of contributors has jumped to 128,101 from about 30,000 in July end, and the number of companies has reached 11,669.


Since its launch in November last year, the SSF had been trying to attract the private sector companies and employees to sign up its contributory-based social security plan.


Confusion about the scheme in the initial days caused demotivation on the part of the private sector companies and employees, but awareness campaigns by the SSF seem to have cleared the confusion.

"We have been running awareness campaigns so far which is successful in creating positive vibes. The SSF has not yet launched efforts to promote the scheme and incentivise it," said Executive Director of the SSF Kapil Mani Gyawali.

"The fund has just received a dedicated team only from this week, and I am hopeful that the results will be even better in the next couple of months," he added.


The fund has extended the deadline to enrol for the scheme till November end. Earlier the deadline was set for mid-October 2019.


Major private sector organisations like the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI), Nepal Bankers' Association and employee suppliers have decided to go with the scheme. The CNI and Private and Boarding Schools' Organisation of Nepal (PABSON) have already sent circular to their member companies to join the scheme while the FNCCI and NBA have made a policy decision to sign up with it.


However, given the total number of employees of about 2.4 million in the formal sector, the number of companies and employees is a small portion. As the government has launched schemes to formalise the informal business companies, the number of employees will go up in the years to come.


According to the Economic Census 2018, there were 922,445 business enterprises as of April 2018 and the number of persons engaged was 3.4 million. But half of the enterprises were not registered with the government.


The SSF is planning to create strong collaborations with the business registration agencies to facilitate more companies to join the social security scheme. "We have initiated a discussion with the Company Registrar's Office and Department of Industry," said Gyawali.


After the enrolment in the scheme, the employers have to contribute 20 per cent equal to the salary of their staff and deduct 11 per cent from the latter's basic salary and deposit it to the fund.


The registered employee is entitled of medical treatment, health and maternity protection, accident and disability protection and dependent family protection and pension.


Two employees' families have started receiving pensions as per the dependent family protection scheme following the death of the employee.


About 1,838 companies from State One, 460 from State Two, 7,772 from State Three, 531 from Gandaki, 828 from State Five, 118 from Karnali and 122 from Sudurpaschim are registered with the SSF. State 3 has the highest number of employees – 92,791- enrolled with the SSF. These employees have contributed Rs. 224.9 million to the fund. The scheme is expanded to 69 districts.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 4 December 2019.