Agreement reached to raise Bahraini citizens’ pensions by 6%, up to BD60

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

The executive and legislative branches have agreed to raise Bahraini citizens’ pensions by 6%, up to BD60 maximum, in addition to disbursing an annual increase whenever fund surpluses are achieved in accordance with current law.

The agreement was reached yesterday during a joint meeting of the Shura and Representatives Councils’ Services Committees and the government taskforce, which was presided over by Representatives Council Speaker Fawzia bint Abdullah Zainal and attended by Shura Council Chairman Ali bin Saleh Al Saleh and Finance and National Economy Minister Shaikh Salman bin Khalifa Al Khalifa.

The government asserted its adoption of the proposed amendments by the legislative branch based on the results of continuous meetings between representatives of the government and the legislative branch regarding the proposed amendments to ensure the sustainability of the pension funds, enhance their capability to honour their future obligations, and protect the rights of pensioners and subscribers.

As a result, the institutions, rather than individuals, will bear the majority of the costs of the changes through their commitments to pension funds, including the following:

1. Adding five optional incentive years above the normal retirement age for those who want them, raising the maximum retirement pension to 90%, and considering the normal retirement age as 60 years.

2. Enrolling non-Bahrainis in the social insurance system by calculating the end-of-service gratuity.

3. Increasing gradually the percentage of insurance contributions until it reaches 27%, provided that the percentage of individual contributions does not exceed 1%.

4. Maintaining the nominal years of service, provided that the government bears the actuarial cost.

5. Settlement of the retirement pension on the average of the last five years before retirement.

The meeting was attended by members of both committees, as well as representatives from the Ministry of Finance and National Economy and the Social Insurance Organization (SIO).