Finance Minister Kamal renews pledge to roll out universal pension scheme in FY24

The minister says work on the scheme has progressed substantially and wants to make good on his promise

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has reiterated his promise to launch the universal pension scheme in the 2023-24 fiscal year.

The minister presented an ambitious government expenditure of Tk 7.61 trillion for the new year in parliament on Thursday, boosting the spending by 15 percent over the revised outlay for the previous year.

Kamal announced the facility in his budget speech last year. With the Universal Pension Management Act 2023 in force, the government instituted a National Pension Authority to manage the scheme.

“I pledged to introduce a universal pension system in the budget speech for FY23 following our election manifesto. That work has progressed substantially,” Kamal said on Thursday.

“The ‘Universal Pension Management Act, 2023’ has already been passed by the parliament. I hope it will be possible to roll out the scheme from FY24.”

“Under the proposed scheme, a beneficiary can enjoy pension benefits subject to the payment of subscription up to the age of 60 years if she or he enrols at an age between 18 to 50 years, whereas those who enrol at an age of more than 50 years have to pay a subscription [fee] for a minimum of 10 years. The expatriate Bangladeshi will be able to participate in this scheme,” he said.

If the pensioner dies before attaining the age of 75 years while on pension, the nominee of the pensioner will be entitled to the pension for the remaining period of the pensioner's completion of 75 years, he said.

If the subscriber dies before paying the subscription for at least 10 years, the deposited money will be returned to the nominee along with the profit, he added.

“A maximum of 50 percent of the deposited amount can be withdrawn as loans by the subscriber by submitting an application. Contributions to the pension fund will be treated as investment and tax rebate can be availed against it.”

Besides, the amount received as a monthly pension will be exempted from income tax. A pension authority will be established soon.