State banks are not willing to provide cheap housing loan facilities to members with the Employees’ Trust Fund (ETF) as collateral or a guarantor a senior official said.
This, according to Employees’ Trust Fund Board Deputy General Manager, Member Services Wasantha S. Dissanayake, has forced the ETF to borrow from the NDB Bank at a much higher interest rate.
Though all the state banks have been approached by the ETF they have all been turned down, thus putting an additional burden of higher interest on the members who obtain the ‘Viyana’ housing loans through this scheme. These comments were made by Mr Dissanayake at a seminar held by Small and Medium Enterprise Developers (SMED) of Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industries of Sri Lanka (FCCISL) in Colombo this week. There are 8.9 million ETF members whose contributions have created a fund of Rs.103 billion. The total number of active employers contributing to the fund is 61,200. Of the members there are around 20,000 companies which have defaulted.
ETF investments in 2009 rose to Rs. 1.006 billion from Rs. 29.221 million in 2000. This in turn yielded a return of Rs.14,262 million against Rs. 3298.5 in the same period. Members contributions have risen from Rs. 2,976.28 million in 2000 to Rs. 8,753 million in 2009.
Speaking further, Mr Dissanayake said that “the objectives of the ETF Board include provision of non-contributory benefit to employees on retirement and other welfare benefits to its members. Death Benefits(free life cover), Permanent Disablement, Eye lens implant, Heart Surgery Assistance, Kidney Transplant Assistance, Hospitalization Scheme, Year 5 Scholarship and ‘Viyana’ Housing loan Scheme are the benefits provided for the active member of the fund. When the employers do not make regular contributions it is the members who lose the benefits we give. Annually over 100 year 5 scholarship benefits are denied to members children because of this.” |
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