PESHAWAR: Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar, has converted contributory provident fund to employees` voluntary pension scheme to benefit its staffers financially and help them in case of accidental and natural deaths.

The provincial government has introduced contributory provident (CP) fund to reduce burdenofpensiononitsexcheq-uer. The province`s oldest medical teaching institution Lady Ready Hospital adopted it in 2011. The employees and employers have been contributing to it since its inception. The funds were kept in corporate account and it was invested from time to time to gain profit.

By keeping it in corporate account, employees were unable to get maximum benefits of their funds. The chairman of LRH Board of Governors, Dr Nausherwan Burki, and management of the hospital showed keen interest in transition of CP funds into employee`s voluntary pension scheme (VPS).

Dr Burki appreciated finance team of the hospital for the initiative. `It is up to the respective BoGs of other MTIs to introduce the scheme,` he said when asked if he would directother teaching hospitals to follow suit in his capacity as chairman of MTI Policy Board.

He said that the new scheme would secure employees financially as it entailed more benefits and they would feel secure.

Riaz Ali Khan, the newlyappointed director finance, completed the process of conversion of CP fund into VPS that entailed battery of financial benefits for 2,800 employees including doctors, paramedics, nurses and support staff of the 1,800-bed hospital.

Riaz Ali Khan said that he had also initiated a third-party audit of CP fund on directives of the chairman of BoG since 2011 to ensure its smooth transition to VPS. Henceforth, CP fund was placed in corporate account.

He said that by conversionfrom corporate account to VPS, employees were entitled to other complementary benefits as opposed to CP fund where the employees had fewer benefits.

He said that all employees would have their own account as funds would be transferred to their individual accounts and the account-holders would stand entitled to accidental medical coverage up to Rs7.5 million.

Riaz Ali Khan said that VPS would also make the dependents of employees eligible for three-fold of their investment in case of accidental and twice in case of natural death. He said that they would get up to 20 per cent tax rebate on investment into pension fund. He added that digital App would enable employees to see the sta-tus of their investment anytime.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government officially adopted it in June 2022 onwards for induction of all civil servants and VPS were also introduced at that time. However, conversion into VPS voluntary pension scheme was accorded approval in the recent meeting of Board of Governors.

It is purely for the best of LRH 2,800 employees, who have been contributing to it since 2011. They will get the real fruit onwards now.

Meanwhile, representatives of employees have lauded the move. They said that it would entice highly professional people to join LRH who were previously hesitant to join the hospital owing to shortage of perks and privileges.