Finance adviser Salehuddin Ahmed on Monday asked the pension authorities to bring about necessary changes in its current schemes to attract people.
He gave the directive while chairing the first meeting of the board of directors of the National Pension Authority at the secretariat in Dhaka, said NPA member Md Golam Mostafa.聽聽
The finance adviser is the chairman of the board of directors of the NPA which has been facing many problems since the introduction of four instruments--Probash, Pragati, Surokkha, and Samata-- in August 2023 for citizens aged between 18 years and 50 years.
Under the initiative, the scheme holders have been projected to receive pension benefits at different rates from the retirement age of 60 years. The benefits will be based on their monthly contributions for at least 10 years.
Lack of preparation, unwillingness among stakeholders, and absence of suitable investment options have been identified as early problems while growing inactive policyholders and falling enrolments are among new problems.
Around 20 per cent of some 3,72, 371 policyholders until October 9 became dormant.
Due to the recent regime change with the fall of the Sheikh Hasina regime amid a student-mass uprising on August 5, the number of new enrolments has dropped to around 10 persons daily from the previous number of 4,000 a day.
Finance secretary Md Khairuzzaman Mozumder who is also a member of the board of directors told reporters that the finance adviser asked the NPA to gear up its activities.
He said that the finance adviser was apprised of all activities taken by the NPA for the past one year, including investment of around Tk 125 crore on government treasury bonds under the guideline adopted in June this year, and cancellation of the scheme Prattoy on August 3 due to protests by university teachers.
NPA officials said that they wanted arrangements for cooperation from the Chief Adviser鈥檚 Office and the district administrations for gearing up the activities.
The finance adviser has given assurance to look into the matter, said Golam Mostafa.
The ousted Awami League government was desperate to move towards a contributory pension policy from the so-far non-contributory one to offset the growing burden of pension allocations on the national budget.
Within just 11 years, the allocations for pension and gratuity benefits in the national budget became more than triple鈥擳k 39,419 crore has been projected for FY25, which was Tk 11,913 crore in FY14鈥攎ounting pressure on fiscal management by the finance ministry.
