Bringing reforms about pension is an urgent need to ensure sustainable fiscal discipline at federal as well as provincial levels.
This was stressed by speakers while sharing their views with the participants during the online dialogue ‘Reform of Pensions: Lessons from Successful Examples in Pakistan,’ organised by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) in collaboration with Sustainable Energy and Economic Development (SEED), said a statement issued on Sunday.
Former head of Federal Pay and Pension Commission, Wajid Rana said that any pension reforms cannot be separated from pay reforms. Both pay and pension bills are growing at a rapid pace and more is being consumed from the general revenue collections due to this increase, he added.
Joint Secretary, Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource, Sheena Ali Mansoor, on the occasion, said that Employees Old Age Benefit (EOBI) has huge potential which is not being used. Currently, EOBI is dealing with the formal sector only. However, efforts are being made to cover the informal sector and overseas Pakistanis as well, she added.
She further said that there are three ways to increase funds i.e. through contribution, investments and government support. Besides, EOBI has eight million registered pensioners and there are lots of ghost pensioners which are required to be purged out.
Hasaan Khawar, team lead SEED, was of the view that pension is highly critical to Pakistan’s fiscal sustainability and probably, new IMF programme would be dealing with this issue.
He added further that the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has started focusing on pensions reforms as in coming years, the provincial government would not be able to pay salaries and pensions and similar is the situation of other provinces. “Therefore, we need to address this problem politically, administratively, and technically,” he added.
Zafar Masud, President of Bank of Punjab, highlighted that there is no argument that a pension fund is needed to be developed in Pakistan. Fund management is important, and it could be done involving the private sector.
Dr Vaqar Ahmed, Joint Executive Director SDPI, covered various aspects of the topic and said that the pension budget at the federal level has seen a growth of over 20 percent annually during the last five years. For the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa budget, the pensions have grown 10 times between 2010 and 2019, which is faster than the growth of overall revenues of the province.
He said that an evaluation is needed to identify difficulties in implementing various reconditions. Such discourse, therefore, aims to bring together government officials and independent experts to highlight fiscal policy challenges, he added.
Managing Director Pak Telecom Employees Trust, Hamid Farooq opined that the government in the short run needs to workout on data of beneficiaries, analyse its pensions’ liabilities and then make an independent organization by adding relevant stakeholders.
Syed Nayyar Hussain, Director Policy Regulation and Development Department, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, emphasised that the government needs to develop a holistic pension scheme covering social pensions, government pensions and individual pensions.
