Day: April 14, 2022

The Ministry of Railways is facing serious financial problems in the disbursement of pensions to its employees and has requested the government the provision of Rs. 9.8 billion for this purpose.

The Federal Ombudsman Ejaz Ahmad Qureshi taking cognizance of complaints against delay in disbursement of Pension by AGPR by different ministries constituted a Monitoring Committee under the headship of Muhammad Ayub Tarin, Senior Advisor and former Additional Auditor General to evaluate the implementation status of pension reforms.

Further, to figure out how the pension payment process could be further simplified to facilitate pensioners, the committee summoned the AGPR, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Railways, Ministry of National Health Services, Federal Directorate of Education, and Association for the Welfare of Retired Persons (AWRP) for this purpose.

Tarin said that the pensioner along with their family members is still facing great financial difficulties due to delays in the finalization of pension cases. The representative of AGPR informed that although under the directions of WMS, Pension Cells have already been established in all Ministries and Divisions still lapses were noted in the submission of pension cases.

However, in family pension cases, payment of pension is delayed due to some legal issues i.e. declaration of legal heirs, non-availability of the bank account of the widow, and eligibility of family members. The AGPR assured to finalize the pension cases within 30 days from the day of submission of documents.

The AGPR further informed that they have started automation of service statements/service books which are on the SAP system and it would facilitate early finalization of the pension claims.

The Ministry of Health Services informed them that no case of pension is pending with them. The Ministry of Railways informed that they are facing serious financial problems in the disbursement of pensions to its employees and have requested the government to the provision of Rs. 9.8 billion for this purpose and soon as the funds are received, all dues of pensioners would be cleared.

The Finance Division assured full cooperation for delegation of powers for approval of pension from PAO/Federal Secretary to BS-21 officer. The Ombudsman directed all Ministries/Divisions to ensure maximum facilitation of pensioners in completion of required documents for the grant of pension on retirement. He also directed to hold monthly meetings of the Monitoring Committee on the implementation of Pension Reforms.

Source: Pro Pakistan

Banks have approved applications amounting to Rs. 180 billion and disbursed Rs.66 billion against the approved applications under Mera Pakistan Mera Ghar Scheme till April 11, 2022.

This shows an increase in approvals of applications of more than 11 times as, a year ago, in April 2021, the banks had approved only Rs. 16 billion.

According to the State Bank of Pakistan, Banks received applications for housing finance amounting to Rs. 409 billion, which was merely Rs. 57 billion a year ago, reflecting an increase of more than 7 times.

Similar trends can also be observed in the overall financing of the housing and construction sector by banks. Banks almost doubled their housing and construction finance portfolio to Rs. 404 billion as of March 31, 2022, from Rs. 204 billion a year earlier. In increasing their housing and construction finance, banks have also achieved, almost 100 percent, of the first quarter target of Rs. 405 billion for 2022.

To improve the provision of financing for the housing and construction sector to increase adequate housing in the country and boost construction sector activities, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) with the support of the Government of Pakistan has taken several measures since July 2020.

In October 2020, the Government of Pakistan augmented these efforts by introducing the Government Markup Subsidy Scheme, now commonly known as Mera Pakistan Mera Ghar (MPMG) Scheme. Available in both conventional and Islamic modes, this scheme enables banks to provide financing for the construction and purchase of houses at very low financing rates for low to middle-income segments of the population.

Key initiatives taken under the MPMG scheme included allowing acceptance of third-party guarantee during the construction period, waiver of Debt Burden Ratio (DBR) in case of informal income, and the introduction of standard facility offer letter by the banks. SBP also advised banks to develop and deploy income estimation models for borrowers with informal sources of income. In addition to gauging readiness, knowledge, and appropriateness of behavior of banking staff towards customers, regular mystery shopping of banking branches was also conducted by State Bank all over the country.

The current progress under MPMG is also attributed to banks’ improved preparedness for handling housing finance that includes alignment of banks’ strategic focus, continued improvements in their systems and procedures, training and capacity building of staff, extensive marketing, and leverage of technology to reach out to customers.

These improvements have helped banks better handle financing requests of potential customers. The huge influx of applications and subsequent approvals of financing by banks under the Scheme indicates that the current momentum of disbursements under MPMG will continue in the coming months as well.

SBP also advised housing and construction finance targets to banks on July 15, 2020. Banks were required to increase their housing and construction finance portfolio to 5 percent of their domestic private sector advances by the end of 2021. As a result, banks’ financing to the housing and construction sector increased to Rs. 367 billion as of December 31, 2021, from Rs. 148 billion as of June 30, 2020. By 2022, banks have been advised to increase their housing and construction portfolio to 7 percent of their domestic private sector advances i.e. up to Rs. 560 billion.

Source: Pro Pakistan