The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has advised the government of Pakistan to increase the retirement age and contain pension bills as part of a reform programme.
Pakistan’s federal expenditure on salaries and pensions is estimated at about Rs450 billion, including pension expenses of about Rs171bn for the current financial year. Provincial pay and pension bills are much higher than the federal bill.
As part of public expenditure reforms programme, the IMF has suggested increase in the retirement age as a way out of rising pension bill due to improved life expectancy rate. This is one way of reducing the pension bill and, at the same time, making better utilisation of expertise of senior bureaucrats.
There have been proposals from the senior bureaucracy for increasing retirement age to 62 years from 60 but the federal and provincial governments have discouraged such proposals mainly because of political incentive in providing jobs to a growing younger population.
Of the federal government’s pension bill of about Rs171bn this year, about Rs125bn pertained to retired workforce of the armed forces.
“Public wage bill reforms should target structural change that strengthens the link between pay and productivity, improve hiring process and ultimately raise efficiency in the provision of public services,” said the IMF, adding that this should also be coordinated with reforms in other areas, especially in labour intensive health and education sectors to ensure that objectives are aligned.
Furthermore, the increase in the wage bill should be commensurate with the provision of services and growth of fiscal space, it said.
The IMF advice came at a time when the government is reluctant to increase salaries and pensions in the next budget to absorb the impact of over 100 per cent raise already provided by the PPP government. But the government is under pressure from its employees for a raise.
Sources said the Economic Advisory Committee of the government which shared its initial thoughts with the federal government over the weekend as part of budget-making consultations is also reported to have viewed that about 120pc increase in salaries in five years of the PPP government had worsened the government’s service delivery. Due to these increases, the share of salaries in the administrative expenditure had increased from 60pc to 88pc.
The IMF is of the view that regardless of whether the immediate goal is to contain the growth of the wages bill or to create the fiscal space to accommodate a large one, an important challenge is to attract the necessary staff to ensure that public services are provided in an efficient manner. “Increasing the link between pay increases and employee or team performance and periodically assessing employment levels in line with the functions of the government should ensure retention of skills while improving efficiency”.
Here in Govt. we're already fed up of these 60 year old babooos who are good for nothing. Can't move around, can't use a computer, cant understand a thing yet act like sages. Retirement age needs to be reduced to 50 to rid ourselves of these baboos and bring new intelligent blood in State owned enterprises.
Retirement age should extend from 60 to 62, it is beneficial to utilize the services of experienced trained officers / officials. It will also reduce the burden of pension on government's exchequer. IMF's proposal is good and it should be implemented as soon as possible.
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