ISLAMABAD - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has urged the federal government to increase superannuation age to 62 years, from 60 years at present, to cut huge expenditures being incurred on pensions of the government employees. According to reports, the IMF has asked the government to introduce reforms primarily to control ballooning expenditures under public wages and to increase productivity of the public sector.  In the current fiscal year alone, an estimated Rs450 billion will be spent on salaries of the federal government employees alone.
The amount include over Rs170 billion under the head of pensions.
IMF, which has just completed a review of the Pakistan's economy under its extended fund facility worth over $6 billion, has noted that there is incremental growth under public wage expenditures and to control it retirement age of government employees should be increased to 62 years.