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The government on Wednesday introduced a new scheme named “Prottoy” under the Universal Pension Scheme (UPS) for newly recruited employees of self-governed, autonomous, state-owned, statutory organisations and their subordinate bodies.
In a notification on Wednesday, the Ministry of Finance said the scheme will be effective from 1 July.
The new benefits will be available for people joining on 1 July or afterwards any of the following: self-governing, autonomous, state-owned, statutory organisations and their subordinate bodies, the notification read.
The introduction of the “Prottoy” scheme will not prejudice against the interests of the existing officers/employees of these institutions and their existing pension/gratuity benefits will remain intact, said the notification.
However, those who have a minimum 10 years of service period remaining can participate in the new scheme if they express interest.
Most of the employees working under the current pension scheme are covered by the gratuity and the Contributory Provident Fund (CPF). In this system, employees are entitled to a minimal sum as a retirement benefit at the end of service, but no monthly pension, the notification added.
To address the existing problems, the government has introduced the “Prottoy” scheme.
In the “Prottoy” system, 10% of the basic salary of a concerned officer or employee or a maximum of Tk5000, whichever is less, will be deducted from the said salary and an equivalent amount will be paid by the concerned establishment or institutes for participation in the scheme.
Then both the amounts will be deposited under the management of the National Pension Authority, which will then invest the sum in profitable areas. The resulting proceeds would be added to the pensioner’s account.
For example, after depositing under an employee’s name for 30 years the person will get a pension of Tk62,330 per month after retirement at the age of 60 years.
In this case, for 30 years, the total amount of contribution paid from the employee’s own salary is Tk9 lakh (depositing Tk2,500 per month) and the total amount paid by the concerned institution/organisation is also Tk9 lakh.
The total amount of contributions for the organisation and related employees will be Tk18 lakh. If the beneficiary dies at the age of 75, that person will have got a pension of at least Tk1.12 crore in 15 years, which is 12.47 times the employee’s own deposit, said the ministry in clarifying the benefits.
(DS)
