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Govt to issue guidelines on PPF scheme for academics
By Adam Ihucha
16th October 2009
Any attempt by Parastatal Pensions Fund (PPF) to change its formula of determining the benefits for its members, will send the fund into an early bankruptcy, a cabinet Minister has warned.
Lecturers of public universities in August this year raised a red flag against PPF for continuing to pay them what they termed as peanuts in the name of terminal benefits.
They demanded that university employees be left to decide the pension scheme they want to register with. The Dons believe that PPF is capable of increasing the rates of their benefit payments, but its management was taking the issue for granted.
Yesterday, Finance and Economic Affairs Minister, Mustafa Mkullo told the 19th PPF annual members conference in Arusha that the government will soon issue guidance on the matter.
The government will issue the guidance soon after working on the report by Actuary who analyzed the benefits provided by the PPF and the funds sustainability if it decided to increase benefits Mkullo noted.
Quoting the report, he said, if PPF will dare to change its benefits formula in order to provide benefits rate similar to other funds like Public Service Pension Fund (PSPF), Local Authority Provident Fund (LAPF), it will fail to issue sustainable benefits to its members.
For your information, even those PSPF and LAPF claimed to have been providing handsome benefits, are currently facing financial woes, forcing the government to compensate the loss Mkullo noted.
He however commended PPF for increasing its value by 10 percent in six months period, amid the worst global financial crisis which brought almost social security funds into their knees.
Earlier, the PPF Board chairman, Ramadhani Khijja said his funds value has swelled from 499.33bn/- in 2008 up to 550.5bn/- in June this year. The funds value increase is equivalent to 10 percent.
Khijja further announced his fund to increase its minimum retirement benefits from 21,000/- to 50,000/- per month as from January 2010.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN