Insurance system needs more study

IT’S a fair move by Parliament to postpone the second reading of the Employment Insurance System (EIS) Bill 2017 to the next parliamentary session for further deliberation with stakeholders. I wrote several articles on the EIS early this year, raising concerns over the motive and cost benefit analysis of the scheme.

It surprised me that it was tabled in Parliament, which implies that the Human Resources Ministry had not adequately engaged other ministries on the matter. The Deputy Finance Minister’s statement that Socso would stand to collect RM1.4bil annually from 6.5 million employees while only a small number of people would benefit has merit.