Economy Desk: The number of registrations in the universal pension scheme has crossed the milestone of 1 lakh. According to National Pension Authority sources, 42 crore rupees have already been invested in safe treasury bonds from the money of the contributors. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the universal pension scheme on August 17, 2023, to ensure sustainable and well-organized social security for the elderly population. Initially, the Universal Pension Scheme started with four schemes, namely Pravas, Pragati, Suraksha, and Samata. Later, a new scheme called Pratyaya Scheme has been introduced for the officers and employees of all self-governing, autonomous, and state-owned institutions, which will be compulsorily effective from July 1, 2024, for the employees joining the said institutions.
Field administration has been actively involved in bringing universal pensions to people’s doorsteps. The Prime Minister’s Office has constituted a ‘Public Pension Program Implementation and Coordination Committee’ at the national, divisional, district, and upazila levels and provided specific guidelines to the field administration. Besides, departmental monitoring has been given to the officers of the Prime Minister’s Office. Consequently, Commissioners, District Commissioners, and Upazila Nirbahi Officers are also implementing division-, district-, and upazila-wise registration monitoring on a regular basis.
According to National Pension Authority sources, initiatives have been taken to involve people of all classes and professions by organizing public pension fairs and workshops at the departmental level. Meanwhile, a departmental pension fair and workshop were held in Rajshahi on April 19, 2024. Later, departmental fairs will be held in the remaining seven divisions. An adequate number of flyers and booklets have already been sent to the field administration for distribution, and this is continuing. Besides, initiatives have been taken to involve UDC (Union Digital Center) entrepreneurs in the universal pension program. As a result of these initiatives, the milestone of 1 lakh registrations has been achieved, the authorities said. Already, 42 crores have been invested in safe treasury bonds with the money of the subscribers. All the processes, from the registration of a public pension scheme to the monthly deposit, accounting, verification of the corpus account by the registrant, etc., are being done on the digital IT platform.
