Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has announced the decision to introduce universal pension in the proposed budget for fiscal 2022-23.
He made the proposal while presenting the budget at the Jatiya Sangsad on Thursday.
The main theme of the budget has been titled “A return to the continuity of development overcoming the shock of Covid-19”.
The finance minister said in her 2008 election manifesto that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina promised to introduce a universal pension system nationally to ensure old age protection to the elderly people under a sustainable and well-organised social security structure.
“Following this, the National Social Security Strategy Paper formulated by the government in 2015 proposed to develop a comprehensive integrated participatory pension system. In the budget speech for the fiscal year 2019-20, I had announced the introduction of universal pension system. I am very happy to announce that the government has decided to introduce universal pension system in the next fiscal year,” he mentioned.
Earlier, the finance minister said that a universal pension system would be introduced for Bangladeshi citizens between the ages of 18 and 50 within the next six months to a year. The same facility is being kept for the expatriate Bangladeshis.
The finance minister said, “You know Bangladesh has many achievements, today another achievement has been associated with that. And that is the universal pension system. This pension system is for everyone. The pension system states in Article 15 of our Constitution that those who are destitute due to old age will need assistance.The right to receive this assistance is a fundamental right of every citizen of the state. In order to alleviate the shortages due to old age, the needy citizens will get pension.”
However, with the aim of overcoming the impact of coronavirus and returning to the continuity of development, the proposed budget for the fiscal year 2022-23 is Tk 6,78,068 crore, the biggest budget in the history.
This is the 23rd budget of the present government and the 51st of Bangladesh and the fourth budget of the current finance minister. The budget has given importance to inflation control, agriculture, health, human resources, employment and education.
