THE  actuarial review of the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) for the period 2007 to 2011 show that the revenue growth did not keep up with the expenditure growth.

This was confirmed by Chairman of the NIS Board  and Head of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS), Dr. Roger Luncheon yesterday, at his weekly post-Cabinet media briefing.
He said the examination of the scheme’s operations, over the five years indicated that this situation is related primarily to the demographic changes in Guyana.
“The population of the scheme’s beneficiaries is aging and the number of employed people to the number of pensioners is moving more in the favour of the pensioners,”  Luncheon revealed.
He said another factor is the investment income and the fact that it has not been at the level projected.
The HPS pointed out that this is not an uncommon occurrence in social security schemes worldwide and, as a consequence, there exists a considerable array of ledgers to lessen the impact and arrive at some better equilibrium between expenditure growth and revenue growth.
Luncheon said the result of one or a number of those measures is to achieve equilibrium in the rate of growth of expenditure and revenue.
“The choices have to be made and, only after the achievement of consulations by the Scheme among stakeholders, on these specific options to achieve the equilibrium, would a solution that enjoys the confidence of all be arrived at,” he stated.