FINANCE Minister Colm Imbert said a combination of virtual and physical public consultations, where possible, on the future of the National Insurance System (NIS) will be done within the next two months.
In response to a question from Couva South MP Rudranath in the House of Representatives on Friday, Imbert said the first set of consultations will involve one-on-one, bilateral discussions with core stakeholders such as employers, business associations and trade unions. The second set of consultations, he continued, will be "national public consultations be held (in person) in an appropriate venue of if the (public health) regulations do not permit, in a virtual forum."
When Indarsingh asked Imbert if he was aware the consultations would be happening during the state of emergency (SoE), Imbert said it appeared that Indarsingh was signalling "that the Opposition will support an extension of the SoE."
The Prime Minister announced the declaration of the SoE on May 16. Without parliamentary approval, the SoE could run for 15 days from May 16 to 30. On May 24, the House approved a three month extension of the SoE from May 30 to August 30.The SoE could be terminated at any time during this period by Government going to the House and using its majority there to do so.
Imbert said, "If you take two months from now. it takes us beyond the original three months of the SoE."
He added, "We have learnt a lot in the last 12 months as a country as to how to do consultations in a digital format. We will use the virtual method of consultation and also we will also use whatever physical consultations can be done within the public health regulations."
Imbert said while the tenth actuarial report on the NIS is available on the NIB's website, it would be made available to participants in the upcoming consultations.
On Monday, Imbert described UNC claims that the NIB was facing an imminent collapse as a ridiculous fantasy conjured up in their minds.
He told MPs the NIS "currently stands at almost $28 billion." Last year, Imbert said the NIS "generated returns of approximately $1 billion and National Insurance was required to pay out approximately $1 billion, leaving the fund intact at approximately $28 billion."If nothing is done at this point in time, he said, "It is estimated that the fund will be depleted in 2043. It's a false premise."
He reminded MPs that he gave an update on the status of the NIB in a statement in the House on June 25. In that statement, Imbert said Imbert said NIB's annual report for the year ended June 30, 2020, showed the number of contributors in the NIS during 2020 was 404,197, declining by four per cent from 420,638 in 2019.
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