Georgetown: With over 43,000 pensioners in payment at July, 2013, long-term benefits dominate the benefits profile as the aging population combined with longevity has impacted significantly on this growth in benefit expenditure.
Secretary to the Cabinet, Dr Roger Luncheon said non-coercive methods in enrolling the self-employed have had inconsequential results in population size over the years. At the end of 2012, the active population of the employed contributors numbered 117,219, while the active population of the self-employed was only 8,791.
He explained that the self-employed situation of anomaly is evident in the face of the size of the parallel economy in Guyana. Importantly, the contribution rate has seen occasional annual increases in the last decade.
“In the meanwhile, NIS continues to offer a pension indexed to minimum wages in the Public Service, with a wide range of short-term benefits to contributors and pensioners.
The end result is predictable: Expenditure growth exceeds that of revenue. The NIS fund is therefore being used to meet the operational deficits currently being incurred,” explained Luncheon in the statement.
As a result, the NIS fund has failed to show growth over the recent years, as deficits in operational costs have been financed from the savings in the fund. In 2011, the fund was $30,410,427,000, while the 2012 unaudited fund was $30,214,987,000
THE management and board of the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) have pledged to implement more systematic and aggressive efforts to collect hundreds of millions of dollars owing to the scheme by businesses and self-employed individuals.
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