Jumbangla Desk: It has been decided to make necessary changes to increase public participation in the universal pension program. In this case, several policy decisions can be made along with increasing the facilities by changing the rules. However, the four ongoing schemes will continue to be disrupted. No new scheme will be included for now. Today Monday in the meeting room of the Ministry of Finance Finance Advisor Dr. These decisions were taken in the first meeting of the Board of Directors of the Universal Pension Authority under the chairmanship of Salehuddin Ahmed.

After the meeting, Golam Mostafa, a member of the Universal Pension Authority, told Samakal that there is always scope for reform in the pensions of all countries. In different countries of the world, sometimes age, sometimes benefits increase. Going forward, if the pension authority feels that making changes somewhere will increase the number of participants, then that will be done. Any reform can be done by regulation even if it is against the law. Changes will make this program more attractive. The financial adviser has given instructions in this regard. The meeting decided to strengthen this program as a whole.

He said, the participation increased at a massive rate as the pension authority took initiatives involving the local administration. But in the later context, it was not possible to campaign like that in the last few months. For this reason, the issue of taking additional initiatives in coordination with the Chief Advisor's Office and the Cabinet Division was presented in the meeting. However, it will take some time to strengthen this activity. Moreover, it was decided in the meeting that the four existing schemes will continue, no new scheme will be included for the time being.

When asked about the distribution of the profit made by investing the money of the pension scheme, Golam Mostafa said that the profit made up to June 30 of this year will be calculated and distributed to the beneficiaries this month. Scheme beneficiaries can log into their account to see the amount of money deposited and the amount of profit.

The deposed Awami League government launched the universal pension scheme on August 17 last year to bring people from all walks of life under a sustainable and well-organized social security structure. Universal pensions were initially launched with four schemes – immigration, progress, protection and equity. Later it was announced to introduce a new scheme called 'Pratya Scheme' in the universal pension scheme for the officers and employees of all self-governing, autonomous, state-owned, statutory or homogeneous organizations and their subordinate bodies, but it could not be implemented.

According to the report presented in the meeting, till yesterday 3 lakh 72 thousand 378 people have completed the registration by paying the contribution in Sarvajani Pension Scheme. And the amount of contribution they submitted is 130 crore 96 lakh 83 thousand taka. Out of this, 124 crore 99 lakh 55 thousand 669 rupees have been invested in government treasury bonds.

Poor people, whose annual income is up to Rs 60,000, are leading in terms of enrollment in the pension scheme. For them, the monthly subscription amount of Samata Scheme is 1 thousand rupees. Of this, 500 rupees is given by the scheme recipient and the remaining 500 rupees is given by the government. The number of registrants in this scheme is 2 lakh 85 thousand 884 people. And the amount of subscription is 41 crore 70 lakh 29 thousand taka.

On the other hand, employees of private organizations have deposited the most money for subscription by accepting pension schemes. 47 crore 25 lakh 500 taka has already been deposited in the progress scheme launched for them. The number of registrants in this scheme is 22 thousand 410 people. Expatriates are at the bottom both in terms of subscription and registration. So far 910 people have contributed 4 crore 85 lakh 24 thousand rupees to Prabus scheme. Besides, 63 thousand 174 customers have contributed 37 crore 16 lakh 30 thousand taka to the protection scheme for people working in the informal sector or engaged in self-employment.