The Graphic reports in its front page story that government will boost its revenue by 22.2 billion cedis if the Cap 30 Pension Scheme is phased out within six years.

"Govt to save ? 22b", caps the lead story of the paper which says that over 13,000 civil servants are yet to proceed on Cap 30 pension while a 1996 data indicates that ?67,039 billion was paid to 91,361 pensioners under the scheme. The figure is projected to rise to over 91.3b cedis in 2006 for 122,782 pensioners, the Graphic says.

It quotes Mr. J. E Allotey-Pappoe, acting General Manager in charge of Administration for the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), as saying during a forum for the media, that what the statistics reveal makes it unfortunate for government to be acceding to requests from a group of workers either to remain under Cap 30 or to opt out of SSNIT. Mr. Allotey-Pappoe reportedly submitted that the requests are likely to have devastating effects on the Social Insurance Pension which SSNIT currently run and consequently on government's budget.

" The SSNIT scheme and the Cap 30 are incomparable since the SSNIT scheme is a universal pension plan that cuts across all category of workers and offers compulsory income protection for all contributors while the Cap 30 is only an occupational scheme for pensionable officers in Civil Service paid from general taxation", Mr. Allotey-Pappoe was quoted by Graphic as saying.