A group of retired government employees, representing individuals who had surrendered full pension benefits, on Tuesday urged the government to reinstate pension facilities after 10 years of surrender.
Retired government employees surrendered their pension in the past to access urgent financial assistance. Current policy enables them to access pension after 15 years of their surrender.
The government employees also called for uniform pension facilities for the same posts and the increase of medical allowance for the pensioners as well as the current government employees.
They made the demands at a press conference organised by a platform called 'Pension Discrimination Abolishing Council' at the National Press Club in the capital.
Ex-government officials of different departments took part in the conference and highlighted their financial hardships that are keeping them in a miserable condition.Nazrul Islam, president of a group, members of which had surrendered their full pension, read out a written statement in the conference.
According to it, the government employees was able to surrender their full pension between July 1994 and June 2017 period.
"We did not face any trouble as the market was stable and saving certificates' yields were favourable."
However many of them, who surrendered pension, were facing serious troubles due to higher inflation, essential price hike and lowering the return of savings certificate.
In 2018, the government decided to reinstate the pension for them after 15 years of their surrender following an appeal by the pensioners.
But the move has failed to ensure desired wellbeing of majority of the pensioners, said Mr Nazrul Islam.
"A pensioner has to survive at least 73 or 75 years if he is to get the benefits of pension reinstate facilities in 15 years, whereas our average lifespan is 69.6 years," he said.
"Furthermore, if a pensioner dies even a day before his pension reinstates, his family will be deprived of the pension facility," he said.
He also said if the pension reinstate period is amended to 10 years instead of 15 it will be more beneficial to a larger number of pensioners.
"They will have the opportunity for financial security in the last days of their lives," he added. The number of government employees who surrendered their pension between 1994 and 2017 was 1,07,652, according to the available data.
Currently, 68,920 retired government officials are yet to get the reinstated pension facility after the decision was taken seven years ago.
"The government will have to spend Tk 1.94 billion each year, a negligible amount of the national budget, to start providing the financial support to the pensioners after 10 years of their surrender," the platform of pensioners said. Shahidul Islam, vice president of Bangladesh Retired Government Employees Welfare Association, Abu Alam Shahid Khan, its secretary general, and Intaj Ali, general secretary of Full Pension Surrendering Group, were present at the press conference, among others.
saif.febd@gmail.com