-68K applications pending, no money to pay
-37K teachers-employees application coming soon
-Tk 4.5K cr required to settle 37K submitted applications
Due to the financial crisis, teachers and employees belonging to private MPOs have to wait for a long time to get the money for retirement and welfare benefits. Now after the change of government, the retirement benefits board has not been reconstituted and this problem has become evident. Because, the top level people of the board formed during the previous government are not in office. As the days go by, the hardships and sufferings of the teachers-employees are increasing with the wait to get the retirement benefit money.
There are more than 500,000 private teachers-employees belonging to MPO across the country. Retirement and welfare benefits of these teachers and employees are provided through two institutions. Among these, the welfare benefits are given through the Private Educational Institution Teachers and Employees Welfare Trust. And the retirement benefits are given through the Private Educational Institution Teachers and Employees Retirement Benefits Board.
As per rules, teachers and staff have to wait up to four years even though they are supposed to get retirement and welfare benefits immediately after retirement.
According to the Retirement Benefits Board, from September 2020 to September 31 this year, 37,000 private teachers-employees are waiting to apply for retirement benefits. Among these, the audit of the applications submitted till December 2021 has been settled. But due to lack of funds money cannot be paid. Retirement benefits have been disbursed against applications submitted upto August 2020 latest. On the other hand, according to Kallyan Trust sources, there are about 31 thousand applications for welfare benefits. Out of this, 10 thousand 242 applications have been submitted from January to June this year.
A large part of the money for retirement and welfare benefits is taken from the teachers and employees. For this, 6 percent of their basic salary is deducted monthly. 4 percent of basic salary is deducted for welfare benefit. Apart from this, as per the recent decision, Tk100 per year (Tk 70 for retirement and Tk 30 for welfare) is being taken from each student. The rest of the money is coordinated from the government and interest on subscription deposits. It should be noted that the government has not given any budget to this fund regularly. Assistance is sometimes given in the form of bulk allocations.
According to the sources of Retirement Facilities Board, about Tk 70 crore are collected every month by deducting money at the rate of 6 percent. FDR's dividend is Tk 3 crore per month. But on an average, 1,000 applications for retirement benefits are submitted every month, which requires Tk 115 crore per month to settle. This means that there is a deficit of Tk 42 crore every month; Tk 504 crore per year. About Tk 4.5 thousand crore are required to settle the 37 thousand applications submitted at present.
The money deducted from the teachers and employees for retirement benefits is deposited as a bank opened in the name of the Director General (as per post) of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE). But now there is no regular director general after the change of government. Another is performing routine duties. According to the related sources, the money accumulated as a result of this cannot be used to provide retirement benefits.
The amount of welfare benefits is relatively less than that of retirement benefits. At present, the trust officer Md Abul Bashar is in routine charge of the secretary in this trust. He said that Tk 2 thousand 700 crore are now required to solve all the applications submitted for the welfare benefits of teachers. After that, it is possible to provide welfare benefits regularly if Tk 200 crore is given in the budget every year.
When asked, President of Bangladesh Principal Council Mohammad Mazharul Hannan said, there are two types of problems here. One is the financial problem; the other is the managerial problem. These two problems need to be solved. For this every year the government has to pay a fixed amount of money, which will be as capital. The problem of retirement and welfare benefits can be solved by combining the interest on this money and the contributions deducted from the teachers. The government should give special importance to the teachers and employees so that they can get their due benefits immediately after their retirement.
ZH
