Vietnam's social insurance debt is about 7.4 trillion VND (352.3 millionUSD), making it difficult for the fund to remain viable and providesocial security, officials said at an online discussion held on theGovernment website on May 28.

Tran Dinh Lieu, Head of the VietnamSocial Insurance Collection Board, said as many as 300,000 firms werebehind in paying social insurance premiums for their workers.

Accordingto statistics from the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs,about 16 million workers should have mandatory social insurance.However, only 11 million workers have registered to join the compulsorysocial insurance scheme.

"The imbalance between collections and payments makes the fund unsustainable in the long term," Lieu said.

TheInternational Labour Organisation estimates that if nothing is done tocorrect the situation, the Vietnam Social Security Fund could experiencedeficits by 2021 and run out of funds by 2034.

Lieu noted thatsince it was implemented in 2007, the Law on Social Insurance has notbeen effective in encouraging more workers to join the social insurancescheme and allow social insurance agencies more authority to punishviolators.

Speaking at a meeting earlier in the week organisedby the National Assembly Committee on Social Affairs, vice chairpersonof the committee, Bui Sy Loi, said the goal of the revised Law on SocialInsurance was to encourage workers in the non-formal sectors toparticipate in social insurance and by 2020, half of the labour forcewould participate in social insurance.

The revised SocialInsurance Law would also require that social insurance payment becalculated based on the workers' main salary and allowances as stated inthe labour contract.

It would also enhance the role of social insurance agencies to monitor, inspect and punish violators.

Accordingto Lieu, only 900 out of 6,000 employers who have violated socialinsurance policies have been hit with administrative fines.-VNA