Governor of the General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI) Suliman bin Abdulrahman Al-Gwaiz has said in a statement that the number of contributors covered under the Saudi Social Insurance Scheme has exceeded 9.6 million, while the number of establishments registered with the Scheme has exceeded 441,000. Moreover, GOSI is currently paying more than SR 1.2 billion in monthly pensions to over 300,000 beneficiaries. "During the past two years, GOSI insurance expenses (i.e. pensions, compensation and services) have grown rapidly by 19%; while, GOSI insurance revenues have grown by 16%. This suggests that GOSI will face great financial burdens hampering the payment of benefits to beneficiaries at the present time and to the contributors in future," the Governor said. "The difference in growth between benefits and contributions is attributed to both the aging Scheme (i.e. the number of retirees has increased and the minimum contributory wage is less than the minimum pension) and the early retirement. Therefore, GOSI should ensure solvency through investment in order to pay future benefits. In fact, investment is a key element in financing GOSI fund, whereas the contributions alone can't meet the fund's future obligations," Al-Gwaiz added. On the other hand, the Governor pointed out that GOSI exploits all potentials to apply the Social Insurance Law and ensure the employers' adherence to the Law. "Some employers evade or delay the payment of contributions, which is an act that negatively affects GOSI solvency," Al-Gwaiz said, adding that the current delay fines are used to protect the Scheme form any delay in contribution payment by the employers, but cannot be used as a source of revenue.
