Muscat: Journalist and economic analyst, Mr. Ali bin Rashid Al-Matani, told Al-Shabiba Radio through the “Ma’a Al-Shabiba” show that the establishment of a unified fund for social protection, including unified insurance and retirement systems will standardise benefits, create justice among citizens and eliminate discrepancy between the different retirement systems.

“There was a large gap between the public and private sectors in terms of job guarantees, which led to the reluctance of young workers to work in the private sector. This is because the private sector insurance systems are not appropriate, as there is a wide discrepancy in the benefits provided between the two sectors, and post-retirement guarantees. This is what the draft of the new social protection law worked on to solve and to reduce that gap and achieve equality between benefits, which will attract people to work in the private sector,” Al-Matani said.

How are savings done in the social protection system?

Regarding the optional provident system that the statement touched upon, Al-Matani explained that this system was previously applied in some companies by transferring 10% to 20% to the provident fund. After leaving the company, resigning, or reaching retirement age, the beneficiary will be granted the bonuses saved in the company fund. It is a global system and is followed by many countries as well as some companies operating in the Sultanate. It helps the employee to manage himself in terms of saving some amounts for after retirement or leaving work.

Al-Matani hoped that the law would be implemented efficiently and with high accuracy, and an accurate data system would be provided to deal with the data of the different groups targeted by the social protection system, and not leave room and loopholes in the system.

Source: Times of Oman