Govt plans pension reforms ahead of IMF talks

ISLAMABAD: Ahead of the upcoming IMF parleys and the budget, the government unveiled its plan to finalise the pension package for implementing it across the board including jacking up the age limit for all public servants such as the armed forces, judiciary, and civilian employees.

When asked about the increasing age limit for the Chief of Army Staff and Chief Justice of Pakistan in the aftermath of implementing pension reforms, Minister for Law Azam Nazeer Tarar said that the pension reforms would be implemented for across the board. At the stage of implementation, he said that the relevant acts such as Army Act and others such as for dealing with judiciary or others as well as constitutional amendments would be introduced and passed to implement it for all segments of the society.

Minister for Finance and Revenues Muhammad Aurangzeb revealed that the IMF mission would visit Islamabad in the next seven to ten days period for finalising the major contours and size of the bailout package under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF). “We will explore possibilities for climate financing as well but it will be done after finalising the size and timeframe of the EFF during the upcoming parleys with the IMF” Aurangzeb said while addressing a joint news conference along with Minister for Information & Broadcasting Atta Tarar and Minister for Law Azam Nazeer Tarar here at PTV headquarters auditorium on Tuesday.

Different proposals are under consideration to finalise pension package in order to curtail expenditures and one of the proposals before the ministerial committee is to increase the age limit from 60 to 65 years. The contributory pension will be introduced for new entrants. The pension bill stands at close to Rs801 billion at federal level. Atta Tarar said on the occasion that the pension reforms would be implemented for everyone and there would be no exclusion for anyone as being propagated by spreading fake stories. He said the life expectancy had gone up so there was a proposal to jack up age limit for all public sector employees. He said that there would be no exclusion for any institution under the proposed reform plan.

On a question of judicial activism in the wake of latest apex court decision for suspending the reserved seats, Minister for Law stated that there was agreed principle that the bench for constitutional interpretation would not be less than five- member bench. He said that the proposal was under consideration for bringing changes in the process of inducting judges into the superior judiciary as it was being discussed at different forums that the role of Parliament diminished while judiciary itself assumed the full charge.

To another query regarding failure of retailers’ scheme whereby only 75 preferred to get them registered under the envisaged deadline, the minister said that the government would move forward and would enforce the law of the land. The government, he said, would also implement Point of Sale and Track and Trace System effectively because without digitization the tax revenues could not be jacked up. He posed a question how a country could run with tax to GDP ratio standing at just 9 percent. He said the country cannot run with philanthropic work and the only option is to implement the taxation system to run country.

The minister said that the IMF team would be in Islamabad in next 7 to 10 days and would stay here for about two weeks. Being the lender of the last resort, he said, there was no other option but to go to the IMF programme. Pakistan’s economy, he said, faced twin deficits including the budget deficit and current account deficit but there was another trust deficit which was required to be overcome. The minister said that those who were spending thousands of rupees on cell phones and preferred not to come into taxpayers then why they could not become filers, he questioned? He said that the salaried class was paying the taxes but others were out of the tax system and it could not go for long as the country had come to a stage where non-filers would have to be brought into tax net. He said that the salaried class started paying personal income tax after earning Rs50,000 per month and the rate would come at 10 percent when they cross the salary limit of Rs100,000 per month. He said that the tax to GDP ratio would be brought up to 14-15 percent in the medium term. He said that the government would approach international bond market and resume commercial financing. He said that Chinese market would be explored including possibility of launching Panda bond.