26 December 2016 07:23 am
The bill, if enacted, will provide for the establishment of a contributory pension fund for public servants joining the service in future.
Subject Minister Ranjith Madduma Bandara told the Daily Mirror yesterday the proposed ‘National Pension Bill’ had been drafted at the moment to introduce a contributory pension scheme.
“There is no Parliamentary law governing pension at the moment. We have only a minute,” he said.
“We will now enact legislation to create a fund. Similar funds exist in countries such as Japan, India and Europe. We studied all such models and worked out our own system. Ours contains features taken from all,” he said.
The Minister said Rs. 1 billion had been allocated in the budget for it.
“Alongside, we will get another Rs.3-4 billion from a separate fund. Then, we can start the fund with Rs. 5 billion. In Japan, the pension fund contains as much as Yen 71 trillion,” he said.
The Ministry is planning to hold talks with the trade union sector soon about the new bill.(Kelum Bandara)