The much-hyped Universal Pension Scheme is going to be launched on Thursday considering the future life of the cross section of people in the country. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will formally inaugurate the scheme virtually from her official residence Ganabhaban.
The scheme will be launched considering the future of the cross section of people in the country, confirmed finance division officials.
Initially, four types of schemes will be launched considering people of four different types of communities. These are named as ‘Pragati’ ‘Surokkha’, ‘Samata’ and ‘Prabashi’.
Finance Minister A H M Mustafa Kamal, Finance Secretary Fatima Yasmin and National Pension Authority Chairman (Additional Charge) Kabirul Ezdani Khan will be present at the inauguration ceremony.
As per the rules, there will be a separate pension account titled corpus account in the name of every contributor covered by the scheme. The contribution amount of the subscriber will be calculated as that corpus. At the end of every financial year the authority will declare the dividend on the status of the account as per the audited statement of accounts.
The national pension authority will declare dividends on the balance of the account at the end of every financial year as per the audited accounts of the universal pension fund. The authority will determine the amount of monthly pension on the basis of accumulated deposits in the account.
On Sunday, Ministry of Finance published a circular on Universal Pension Scheme Rules-2023. According to the circular, half of the ‘Pragati’ scheme for private sector employees will be paid by the employer and the other half by the employees. Besides, half of the “Samata’ scheme will be paid by the government.
Private sector employees will get a minimum of 2.30 times to a maximum of 12.31 times of the total contribution deposited in the Pragati scheme, expatriates in the Prabashi scheme, and low-income group people in the Samata scheme. The scheme has a total of 8 tenures ranging from 10 years to 42 years with a minimum contribution of Tk 500 to a maximum of Tk 10,000.
The amount of the dividend corpus account will be determined at the prescribed rate declared on the accumulated subscription. The amount of monthly pension will be calculated on the basis of this deposit.
According to the rules, all Bangladeshi nationals between 18 and 50 years of age with national identity cards will be eligible to include in the scheme. Expatriate Bangladeshis who are without a national ID have the option to register using a valid passport.
People, who have crossed their age 50, can participate under special consideration. In that case, there will be an opportunity to get pension for life from the age reached after paying contributions at fixed rate continuously for 10 years from participating in the scheme.
According to the circular, before participating in the scheme, the benefit of the Social Safety Net Programmes has to be closed. There will be an option to change the rate of contribution and the scheme after joining the universal pension scheme to get pension benefits till the age of minimum 75 years.
Pension scheme contributions should be paid digitally and not in cash. An app was developed for the system. Failure to pay the subscription can be done without penalty up to one month. A late fee of 1 per cent per day thereafter will be payable.
If the contributor fails to pay three instalments consecutively, the pension account will be suspended. The account will not be activated until all outstanding instalments are paid, the circular reads.
