Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has announced his plan to introduce a Universal Pension Scheme in the country from the new fiscal year (2022-23).

 “After passing through all necessary formalities, it will be possible to present this important draft law to Parliament by 2022- Inshallah, “he said.

He mentioned that the implementation of the universal pension scheme will bring a large number of citizens from both the formal and informal sectors under the institutional social safety net.

“Consequently, there will be an opportunity to gradually scale down the existing social security programmes,” he added.

He said that it is high time to establish a universal pension system in Bangladesh as at present the number of working people is much higher than the elderly population.

Under various programmes for social protection of the elderly and needy communities, the government is providing allowances to about 1.15 crore beneficiaries.

Bearing in mind, the government’s election pledge, a policy decision has been taken to enact the ‘Universal Pension Management Act, 2022’ to introduce a universal pension system to ensure a sustainable social safety net for the elderly and the needy people.

In the 2008 election manifesto, he said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina promised to introduce a universal pension scheme nationally to ensure old-age protection for the elderly citizens under a sustainable and well-organised social security framework.

Accordingly, the government, in its 2015 ‘National Social Security Strategy’, proposed the creation of a comprehensive, integrated and participatory pension scheme.

The budget speech for FY2019-2020, establishment of the universal pension scheme was outlined.

Now, he said the government has decided to introduce a universal pension system from the next fiscal year.

He said around 85 percent workforce of Bangladesh’s labour market is employed in the informal sector.

As there is no institutional social security framework for the informal sector and expatriate workers, there are chances of uncertainty of livelihood at their old age.