Muhith hints at pension scheme in private sector

Finance Minister AMA Muhith hinted on Sunday at introducing a national pension scheme through which social security can be ensured.
There is no need for increase in income and it can be initiated in the organised private sector, he said.
"The organised private sector would be covered under the pension schemes in future alongside the existing national pension scheme. There are some 2.0 million government officials and employees under the national pension scheme and if it is implemented at the organised private sector, then the number would rise to 5.0 million," he said.
Mr Muhith, while speaking as the chief guest at a programme at the National Economic Council in the city, also underscored the need for a national database for various pension schemes to avert overlapping and remove errors.
He said the election manifesto of the present government envisioned that initiatives for introducing pension schemes would have to be launched in all private organisations by 2018 while by 2021, social security would have to be ensured.
The minister said, the government expenditure on food transfer programme under the social safety net would be curtailed as the country is self-sufficient in food production.
He also expressed his disagreement over the coverage of 50 per cent poor and vulnerable people in the social protection programme proposed in the National Draft National Social Protection Strategy (NSPS) of Bangladesh by the General Economics Division.
"We spend huge money for food security. This is not tolerable for the economy as the country has enough food. Now we can think of voucher," said the minister.
"It is totally illogical to cover 50 per cent population as the country has 11 per cent of extreme poor people and 26 per cent poor people," said Mr Muhith while speaking as the chief guest at a programme at the National Economic Council in the city.
He said the government cannot put a large part of the budget for social security which comes from tax. Also it is not the job of the government only to protect its poor and vulnerable citizens. Rather support of the donors and the private sector is needed, he said.
The GED organised the first national dialogue on the 3rd draft of the NSPS at the NEC conference room while Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, Social Welfare Minister Mohsin Ali, Bangladesh Bank governor Atiur Rahman and Economic Adviser to the Prime Minister Mashiur Rahman were also present among others. GED member Prof Shamsul Alam made the keynote presentation at the dialogue.
 "We'll now have to have a farsighted thinking on our social safety net programmes as in the next five years, we're certainly going to have a powerful local government. Decentralisation of the administration is one of the biggest promises of this government," he added.
Mr Muhith emphasised on giving priority to social protection, pension scheme and social security for all in the proposed National Social Protection Strategy. He also asked the GED to involve other ministries with the strategy formulation process.
In his presentation, Mr Shamsul Alam said Bangladesh now spends 2.2 per cent of its GDP on social safety net programmes. It should be raised to 3.0 per cent by FY 2015. For this, Tk 212 billion will be required in FY 2015-16 and Tk 345 billion in FY 2017-18 covering 35 million people.
"With 95 programmes and 30 plus agencies, Bangladesh's current social protection system is duplicative, complex and inefficient," he said. He said  because of the proliferation, the budget for most programmes is small and the average benefit per individual is very low.
Developed countries spend quite a significant amount of their GDP on social protection. Even South Africa, Nepal and Cambodia are ahead of Bangladesh.
He said there are 470 million poor and vulnerable people in the country which is quite high. In Bangladesh, 50 per cent population is poor and vulnerable.