Experts suggest early pension reforms to reduce fiscal burden on economy
Zubair Qureshi
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is the first province, which has digitized the pension payment system. Safeer Ahmed, Special Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in a meeting on ‘Reform of Pensions: Lessons from Successful Examples in Pakistan and Beyond,’ said, the provincial government, with the help of digitalization, has been able to remove tiers of the pension claimants, which were not genuine.
The meeting was organized by Sustainable Development Policy Institute, in collaboration with Sustainable Energy and Economic Development and UKAid’s FCDO. Dr Omer Mukhtar, Team Leader, SEED, informed the participants on the occasion that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has 170,000 pensioners, which is equivalent to 25% of their active workforce.
The provincial government has allocated more than 90 billion for pension expenditures for the current fiscal year. The most worrisome aspect of it is that these expenditures are growing at alarming rate of 14% annually, while provincial receipts are growing at the rate of 8%, annually. Keeping this growth trajectory in view, the government will have very little resources to meet other expenses in the coming years.
Member Federal Pay and Pension Commission, Ms Rukhsana Asghar, at the occasion said, the real challenge for the government was to figure out the long-term solutions and enable a strong legal framework to address the pension liabilities’ issue.
