GSIS to meet income target

The Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) is on track to achieve its net income target for this year.

After the first nine months of 2006, the GSIS expects net earnings to reach at least P38 billion, just P2-billion short of its full year income target of P40 billion.

In 2005, income amounted to P36.5 billion.

The government owned pension fund is optimistic of attaining its income target because of improved collection levels especially from the delinguent accounts of national and regional government agencies.

"Our collection efficiency improved from 75 percent last year to 95 percent, and that will be reflected in this year’s financial performance," GSIS president and general manager Winston F. Garcia said.

This year, the GSIS signed several memorandum of agreements with 12 government agencies and local government units (LGUs) for a restructured payment scheme.

GSIS senior vice president for Finance Amelita Tiangco said that they continue to go after delinquent accounts offering debt restructuring.

The pension fund has an investment portfolio of P320 billion which has a potential of growing between 11 to 16 percent.

Investments in government securities amounted to P138 billion with loans to members hitting P100 billion.

In contrast, investments are being undertaken to improve is delivery of service to its members.

The GSIS recently launched G-W@PS, a secure, paperless, end-to-end electronic transaction system that will allow its members to transact business, including loans, much like an automated teller machine (ATM).

The system will be housed in kiosks distributed nationwide using the wireless technology of the two biggest telecommunications companies – namely Smart Telecommunications Co. (Smart) nd Globe Telecommunications (Globe).

The government pension fund will allocate more than P70 million for the establishment of a kiosks or GW@PS center, at a cost of P70,000 per kiosk. It plans to construct 8,000 kiosks nationwide with the first 1,000 targetted by end 2007. It will pay an average P600 per month fixed utilization charge per kiosk per telco, or roughly P14.4 million per year.