Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh today warned that legal actions can be taken against employers who do not pay over the NIS contributions for their staff.

He said the practice appear to be causing chaos in the NIS system especially when persons attain pensionable age and apply for their benefits.

Speaking on the sidelines of an event today, the Finance Minister said there are too many complaints about the problem.

“There are employers out there who are not deducting NIS or who are not paying it over, this is against the law and I have said to the NIS board we should invoke the law and take legal action against employers who are breaking the law either by not making NIS deductions or by deducting and not paying over to the NIS and my instructions to the NIS management are to invoke the provisions of the law and take those employers to court,” the Finance Minister warns

The Minister urged that every person who is employed, must ensure that their NIS contributions are up to date. He said persons should frequently check in with the NIS to ensure that their employers are not defaulting on their contributions to the NIS.

“Active contributors have a responsibility as well, a responsibility to ensure their contributions record are up-t0-date long before they achieve retirement age, request a contribution statement, ensure that your records are up-to-date and if your record is not up to date, approach your employer to get the records up to date so that you don’t find yourselves in a situation where when u attain age 60 you suddenly have to scramble to fix a problem that could have been fixed real time, the Finance Minister urged.

Over the weekend, President Irfaan Ali urged the NIS to address longstanding issues facing army veterans, who are not able to access their contributions due to insufficient contributions although some proved that they have worked long enough to surpass the threshold.

The Finance Minister observed that such an issue is a national one and one that must be addressed soon.

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