Universal Pension Scheme is govt’s pro-people move: DCCI

Universal Pension Scheme (UPS) is an opportune and pro-people move of the government for inclusive and sustainable social safety net for the greater socio-economic development, said Barrister Md Sameer Sattar, President of Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI).

“This move will create a new era in the economic history of Bangladesh. UPS offers four types of people-friendly packages including ‘Pragati’, ‘Surokkha’, ‘Samata’ and ‘Prabashi’ targeting different communities, especially private sector employees, NRBs, informal sector and low-income group of individuals,” he said in a statement.

He said this scheme can also bring in almost a large number of people of the society under its net and the option of 50 percent contribution by the government to the insolvent depositors under the ‘Samata’ scheme is also a remarkable move.

Barrister Sattar believed that in the given global economic meltdown and fiscal austerity, UPS will augment the financial flow in the economy.

This scheme is expected to benefit the vulnerable citizens with social security reducing poverty and social safety cost in national budget in future, he added.

Sameer Sattar found this initiative result-oriented and rewarding not only for the mass welfare but also for best interests of the private sector.

He felt that this robust scheme is expected to rationalise the public sector bank borrowing and make new financing streams to meet the evolving fiscal needs of the government.

It may also help smoothen the private sector credit flow and reduce foreign borrowing to some extent resulting in a hike of the investment to GDP ratio, he added.

Alongside, he said, this may also help make the cost of fund for private sector very competitive among different financing options.

This scheme is also likely to support the huge number of employees working in the large local conglomerates to MSMEs in private sector for employment retention, productivity of employees and fiscal safety at their old age through the ‘Pragati’ scheme, he added.

Many developed and developing economies like Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Australia, India, Canada, Iceland and Switzerland have meanwhile successfully implemented this sort of scheme to safeguard the welfare of their mass people. Replication of operational and safety learning from these countries may help the new scheme to perform as the game-changer of our much-needed economic transformation.

Since this pension scheme is imperative to elevate the income of people for an inclusive economy, DCCI emphasised on competitive and secure return for its depositors, good governance and management of this public fund to attract people and accelerate this timely scheme in the long run. (BSS)