The
ESI Corporation has taken some very important decisions towards extending the
Social Security cover of ESI Scheme to whole of India and for medical care for
serving the workers. Shri Bandaru Dattatreya, the Minister of State for Labour
and Employment (Independent Charge), Govt. of India chaired the 170th Meeting
of ESI Corporation.
ESIC
to introduces a new Scheme to promote Registration of Employers/Employees. ESIC
has also approved enhancement of Ceiling on Medical Expenditure from Rs. 2150/-
to Rs. 3000/- per Insured Person with sub ceiling of Rs. 1250/- for
“Administration” and Rs. 1750/- for “Others” and approves its Annual Report and
Annual Accounts for the year 2015-16
To
extend the coverage to the entire workforce, a new Employer Friendly Scheme has
also been approved as one-time opportunity to (a.) Encourage the employers to
register themselves; (b) Encourage the employer to register employees, if any,
who have been left out of coverage including contractual, casual, temporary
etc. The proposed Scheme will remain open for a period of three months from
1st January, 2017 to 31st March, 2017. The proposed scheme shall have following
features: -
i. The employers registering
during the period will be treated as covered from the date of registration or
as declared by them.
ii. The newly registered
employees shall be treated as covered from the date of their registration.
iii. This will not have any
bearing on actions taken/required under ESI Act, if any, prior to 1st January,
2017.
iv. The Chairman, ESIC may be
authorized to remove difficulties, if any, in implementing the Scheme.
In
order to improve the medical services under State run ESI facilities, the
august body of ESI Corporation has today approved a remarkable decision to
increase per capita ceiling of sharing expenditure with State Governments from
existing Rs. 2150/- to Rs. 3000/- with sub ceiling of Rs. 1250/- for
“Administration” and Rs. 1750/- for “Others”. With enhancement of this
ceiling, the State Governments may now further equip better their medical
services to ESI Beneficiaries in its ESI medical institutions. The enhanced
ceiling of Rs. 3000/- will be fixed from 2017-2018 to 2019-2020 and reviewed
annually from 2020-21 on the basis of WPI and expenditure pattern of the
States.
The
Employees’ State Insurance Corporation today approved its Annual Report and
Annual Accounts for the year 2015-2016 for submitting to the Central Government
and laying on the table of both Houses of the Parliament. The Hon’ble Minister
announced that the ESI Scheme is on the path of sustained growth. It is now
catering to social security needs of more than 2.13 crores insured persons
which is likely to increase to many folds’ in next two to
three years. The number of beneficiaries covered under the Scheme is now 8.28
crores, which will also increase accordingly in next 2-3 years.
Since last two-three years, the ESI Corporation has achieved a lot towards
bringing more and more workers under the Social Security Coverage of ESI
Scheme; bringing Health Reform agenda under “ESIC 2.0”; and also for creating a
digital environment for ESIC’s working towards better delivery to our Insured
Persons and Beneficiaries.
ESIC
has been paying the cash benefits to its beneficiaries directly in their Bank
Accounts. Besides this. The Minister also informed that Ministry of Labour
& Employment and all its divisions along with ESIC have taken-up a special
drive for getting the bank accounts opened for the workers.
Smt.
M. Sathiyavathy, IAS, Secretary, Labour & Employment, Govt. of India and
Shri Deepak Kumar, IAS, Director General, ESIC were also present in the
meeting. Shri Bandaru Dattatreya briefed the tripartite body i.e. the
Corporation about the recent initiatives/developments/achievement of ESIC:-
• Creating “Ease of
Compliance” and “Ease of Business” by getting all important processes of ESIC
online.
• Launching of Public
Grievance Module for online redressal of Grievance of the workers.
• Extending coverage of Social
Security net of ESI Scheme in the remaining North-East States.
• Total revenue of the
Corporation is Rs.14372.22 crores during the year 2015-16 in comparison to Rs.
13588.58 crores last year.
• The Corporation spent a
total of Rs.6819.47 crores in the year 2015-16 on Medical, Cash and other benefits.
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