Drawing the attention towards the plight of workers, President of Lasbela Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) Ismail Suttar, has urged the federal and provincial governments to investigate into the millions of rupees collected in the name of the Workers' Profit Participation Fund (WPPF) that could improve the lives of workers if used properly.
He said that the WPPF was established in late 1960s to acknowledge the participation of workers to make their company profitable and share with them a portion of those profits as a reward and incentive for enhancing productivity. The fund was being collected for welfare projects such as schools, housing colonies and health centres for business and industrial workers.
According to the Companies Profits (Workers' Participation) Act of 1968, business entities contribute 5 per cent of their pre-tax profits yearly to the fund to give social cover to workers drawing minimum wages. There are more than 67,000 registered companies in Pakistan. However, the Act also limits the amount that can be given to an individual worker to 25 per cent and around 75 per cent goes to the government to be utilised for welfare projects for workers, Ismail Suttar said adding that even Pakistan Economic Survey of the previous fiscal year failed to disclose the amount collected under the head of WPPF. Consequently, the major portion of the fund that goes to the government has not yielded any satisfactory results.
All this is going on as nearly 39% of Pakistanis live in poverty and the gap in availability and utilisation of resources between the affluent and the poor is widening day by day, he said. "The business and industry has a right to question where the fund is going to, who benefits from it and why it has been left unchecked for so long that hardly anybody even questions about it," Suttar said asking the government to give details about millions of rupees being collected each year on account of WPPF.