Lawmakers hasten provident fund approval

The goal of the voluntary central provident fund ‘has nothing to do with the system’s nature, if it should be mandatory or voluntary’, lawmaker Cheang Chi Keong said

The draft law on the voluntary central provident fund may have been the target of criticism when it reached the Legislative Assembly (AL) but it looks set to be approved quickly by the AL third standing committee.
The committee met yesterday for the first time since the bill was approved in principle, last month.
“The main problem found by the AL’s legal advisors has to do with the title of the bill and with some articles,” the head of the committee Cheang Chi Keong told reporters after the closed-door meeting.
He said lawmakers and legal experts have raised “lots of questions” because they believe that “the content of the bill is insufficient”. The committee will now meet with the team of secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Cheong U, after Chinese New Year.
“I believe there aren’t many problems for the committee to solve,” he pointed out. “Because there are lots of details in the bill that will be defined in bylaws and those issues should be discussed by the standing committee for coordination of social affairs,” he added.
The committee’s stance is different from what several lawmakers had expressed in the plenary meeting when the bill was submitted. In December two lawmakers declined to vote and most AL members demanded that the government create a social security system with mandatory contributions from all employers and workers.
Yesterday Cheang quoted secretary Cheong U to say that the draft law of the voluntary central provident fund was created to find a solution for the individual accounts of the central savings system.

Discussion frozen

For two consecutive years the government has injected money into residents’ accounts in order to share the benefits of the economic growth. Eligible beneficiaries are permanent residents aged above 22 years old. As of now a total of MOP 16,000 was deposited in the accounts.
“Those accounts will be transferred to the system that will be created with this law in order to encourage more residents to contribute, including employers and workers,” Cheang said.
In December, several lawmakers slammed the fact the new central provident fund is non-mandatory and that contributions will only later on be set in a by-law.
The head of the committee explained that, despite the criticism, members have reached a consensus.
“The consensus is based on the presentation of secretary Cheong U in the first reading of the bill and its goals. If we begin discussing other issues, we will delay the creation of the central provident fund,” he said.
The lawmaker added: “This proposal’s goal has nothing to do with the system’s nature, if it should be mandatory or voluntary, but to solve the problem of the nature of the accounts.”
Back in December, secretary Cheong U said that the government was mulling over revising the system within three years to see if it should then become compulsory or not.
Also yesterday the first standing committee of the AL was close to wrapping up the discussion on the revision of the law regulating the Commission Against Corruption. Committee president Kwan Tsui Hang said lawmakers would conclude the final report in March or April.