7% increase in public sector pensioners in Oman

Muscat: Public sector pensioners in Oman increased to 77,540 in 2015 compared to 72,424 in 2014, making an annual growth rate of 7.1 per cent.
The total value of their pension benefits rose from OMR315 million in 2014 to OMR357 million last year, logging an annual growth of 13 per cent, according to the latest data published by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).
Also, last year, males represented 88 per cent of the total number of pensioners in the public sector.
On the other hand, the number of pensioners in the private sector who are registered with the pension funds increased 11.7 per cent to 14,191 over the period while their aggregate pension entitlements grew to over OMR49.83 million in 2015 from OMR39.99 million in 2014.
The data showed that last year the major reason for termination of employment in the public sector among males was reaching the retirement age with 31,365 employees (43 per cent of the total male retirees) terminating employment while resignation was the main reason behind female service termination with 3,198 females (34 per cent of female retirees).
In the private sector, the main reason for service termination among males was death, with as many as 5,026 employee deaths (making 39 per cent of male service terminations) reported last year.
Retirement
However, among female employees, reaching normal retirement was the key reason for service termination, and their numbers stood at 794 females (50 per cent of the total female pensioners) in 2015.
In 2015, 761 insured employees were transferred to the civil service employee fund and 88 employees were transferred out of it. As many as 654 male employees were transferred to the civil service employees fund while the number of females who were transferred stood at 107.
The number of insured employees transferred from the Public Authority for Social Insurance (PASI) last year was 3,204, compared with 63 employees transferred to PASI.
The total number of Omanis working in the GCC countries and registered with the pension funds stood at 6,740 last year. UAE topped the list with 72 per cent of Omani workers whereas Bahrain had the lowest percentage of Omanis at 1.9 per cent.
The Pension funds in the public sector include funds at the Civil Service, Diwan of Royal Court, Royal Oman Police, Royal Guard of Oman and Central Bank of Oman while private sector pension funds comprise funds at the Public Authority for Social Insurance, Petroleum Development Oman and Oman Refineries and Petrochemicals Co.