CHAPTER V:PROVISIONS CONCERNING VOLUNTARILY CONTRIBUTORS
ARTICLE (43)
The law shall be applied to those who wish to have voluntary coverage by virtue of the provisions of paragraph (4) of Article (4) of the Law in accordance with the following rules and procedures:
1. Submission of the following documents:
a. Application for contribution on the approved form prepared for this purpose.
b. Document showing his engagement in one of the activities provided for in paragraph (4) of Article (4) of the Law, provided that such document shall be issued by the appropriate authority, or a certificate issued by the Saudi Consulate in the country of residence of the Saudi contributor.
c. National identification card or family register.
2. With due regard to the provisions of paragraph (2) of Article (44) of these Regulations, the voluntarily contributor shall select from the attached Schedule No. (1) the income category he wishes to be taken as a basis for his contribution, and his coverage shall take effect from the beginning of the month immediately following the date of completion of the required documents.
ARTICLE (44)
Without prejudice to the provisions of paragraph (1) of Article (45) of these Regulations, any contributor whose compulsory coverage under the Annuities Branch is discontinued may submit to the appropriate office an application expressing his desire to continue his voluntary coverage under the Scheme in accordance with the provisions of Article (8) of the Law for the purpose of completing the contribution period qualifying for entitlement to old-age pension or increasing his contribution period for improving his pension, notwithstanding that his discontinuation of contribution may have taken place prior to the implementation of these Regulations, subject to the following rules and procedures:
1.a The applicant for voluntary coverage may not request to repay the compensation he has already received except in the cases provided for in paragraph (1) of Article (14) of the Annuities Branch Benefits Regulations.
b. For the purposes of accepting the application for contribution, the following conditions shall be satisfied:
1. The application shall be submitted to the appropriate office on the approved form prepared for this purpose.
2. The application shall be submitted within five years from the date of putting these Regulations into effect for the contributor whose compulsory contribution period has ended before the said date and within five years from the ending date of the contribution period if it has ended after these Regulations are put into effect.
2. The contribution shall be based on the income category elected by the contributor from among the income categories contained in the Schedule No. (1) attached hereto, provided that it shall not initially exceed the last contributory wage he was receiving during his compulsory contribution by more than 10%. If his previous wage plus the said percentage fall between two categories, he may chose the higher one. Nevertheless, he may, upon his initial voluntary contribution, elect any category higher than that one, in which case the benefits he will eventually be entitled to shall be computed on the grounds that his compulsory contribution period is considered as an independent period as provided for in the Annuities Branch Benefits Regulations.
3. The contribution shall start with effect from the first day of the month immediately following the date of completing the required formalities and documents.
4. The one to whom the provisions of Article (8) of the Law are applicable and has missed the chance of applying for voluntary contribution within the time limit provided for in paragraph 1.b(2) of this Article, may, at any time, apply for voluntary contribution in accordance with the provisions of Article (43) of these Regulations, so long as he fulfills the required conditions, with due regard to the provisions of paragraph (2) of this Article.
ARTICLE (45)
The following provisions shall be applied to all those who voluntarily covered in accordance with the provisions of paragraph (4) of Article (4) and Article (8) of the Law:
1. With due regard to the provisions of Articles (43) and (44) of these Regulations, the applicant for voluntary coverage shall meet the following requirements in order to accept his application:
a. He shall, at the time of submission of his application for membership, be at age eighteen or over but under the age provided for in paragraph (2) of Article (4) of the Law.
b. He shall successfully complete the medical examination determined by the Governor.
2. The contribution year in respect of the voluntarily contributor shall be the Hijrah calendar year which starts at the beginning of the month of Muharram and ends at the end of the month of Dhual-Hijjah, or the Gregorian calendar year which starts at the beginning of the month of January and ends at the end of the month of December as opted by the contributor who may not change his option.
3. The contributor or the one who acts on his behalf shall pay the contribution due for each month in advance within the first fifteen days of each month. The Governor may accept advance payment of contributions for any period as he may deem appropriate and in accordance with such procedures, arrangements and conditions as he may determine for individual or collective cases, without prejudice to the requirement of expiration of the period for which contributions have been paid until the commencement of the lawfully due date of payment of benefits, as if the contribution has been made on monthly basis.
4. The contributor may designate the name or names and specimen signatures of the representatives who act on his behalf for the purposes of application of the provisions of the Law and these Regulations particularly for submission of documents, completion of forms, and reporting the events required to qualify to benefits. Any actions taken through any of such representatives shall be deemed as binding to the contributor. The contributor may replace such representatives any time after giving the Organization a notice to this effect. If he does not designate any representative to act on his behalf to do so, he shall be liable to deal with the Organization by himself.
5. The contributor may apply for changing his current contributory income category to the immediately higher one, provided that he submits his application for the change before the beginning of the insurance year. The same shall be applied to the one who submits his application within the first fifteen days of the first month of the said year. If he fails to do so within time limit, the change shall take effect in accordance with the new category from the beginning of the insurance year immediately following the date of submission of the application.
6. The contributor may apply for changing his current contributory income category to a lower one, provided that he submits his application before the beginning of the insurance year. The same shall be applied to the one who submits his application within the first fifteen days of the first month of the said year. If he fails to do so within this time limit, the change shall take effect in accordance with the new category from the beginning of the insurance year immediately following the date of submission of the application. In this case, the contributor shall be treated the same as the compulsorily contributor whose contributory wage is reduced in accordance with the provisions of the Annuities Branch Benefits Regulations.
7. The contributor’s membership shall, upon his request, be discontinued with effect from the last month for which he has paid or will pay contributions and shall also be considered as discontinued, in the event of his actual suspension of payment of contributions, with effect from the end of the last month for which he has paid contributions.
8. If an activity on which basis a voluntarily contributor has been registered is discontinued, his contribution shall be terminated at the end of the month in which his activity is discontinued or at the end of the last month for which contributions have been paid if his activity has already been discontinued. However, if it is discovered that he has continued payment of contributions beyond the date of discontinuation of the activity, the contributions paid for the months following the said date shall be refunded to him.
9. The contributor whose contribution is suspended may resume contribution for the purpose of completing the period qualifying for pension or increasing such period, in which case he may pay the contributions and fines for delay due for the suspended period or otherwise forfeit such period. Contribution shall be resumed and the contributions payable for the suspended period shall be computed on the basis of his last contributory income category, and a fresh application shall be submitted by using the form prepared for this purpose.
10. Failure to pay contributions for any reason shall not have effect on the lawful time of entitlement to benefits.
11. If the applicant for voluntary coverage employs workers, his application for voluntary coverage shall not be accepted unless he registers his establishment and all his workers and pays the contributions due in respect of such workers so long as they fulfill the conditions of compulsory coverage under the Scheme as required by the phases of application.
12. The voluntarily contributor shall be subject to all provisions of these Regulations that have no contradiction with his status as voluntary coverage, in accordance with such details and procedures as may be set by the Governor.