The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government introduced a new contributory pension system, the most imperative step that aimed to reduce the burden of Rs92 billion on provincial capital annually by eliminating the existing system of pensions for the government employees.
Pensions in KPK are considered to be the largest budget challenge and there seems a 9500% increase from 2005 till date. The pension bill has reached Rs92 billion which is estimated to increase to 22 percent per annum. If the provincial government bill will exceed Rs1 billion then it will be challenging to pay pensions to government employees.
1. KP's move to introduce contributory pensions for new employees is the most important fiscal reform by any Pak govt, safeguarding pensions of lakhs of govt employees. Pensions are KP's largest budget challenge, from less than Rs 1 bln in 2005 to 83 bln today, a 9500% increase. pic.twitter.com/gMyIVtToSM
— Taimur Saleem Khan Jhagra (@Jhagra) February 21, 2022
The proposed amendment has been approved by the provincial cabinet to Section 19 of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Civil Servants Act 1973. The contributory pension system will apply to the new recruitments once the amendments are passed by the provincial assembly. Furthermore, the new pension system will not be part of the terms of services of existing employees unless they want to be part of the system.
In the contributory pension system, the employees and the government both will make contributions to the employee’s pension fund. At the end of the service, it is the employee’s choice to continue to invest or to withdraw its pension when the service ends.
Read more: Pakistan’s unsustainable public pension system
According to Section 2 of the amendment bill “A person to be appointed on regular basis to a service or post in the prescribed manner, on or after the commencement of KP Civil Servants Amendment Bill 202, shall for all intent and purposes, be civil servant, except for the purpose pension and gratuity, be entitled to receive such amount contributed by him towards contributory provident fund, along with the contributions, made by the government to his account in the said fund.”