In 1947, they broke the news of Pakistan’s independence. In 2022, Radio Pakistan has run out of funds to keep their pensions payments going.
By Muhammad Ali
ISLAMABAD: The broadcast unit that announced the creation of Pakistan in 1947 is facing a severe financial crunch, leaving its pensioners in the lurch in their old age, having no clue how to run their households, Independent Pakistan can report.
In the annual budget for fiscal year 2022-23, the government left unfunded half a billion rupees in payments of salaries and pensions for Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (PBC)
The total allocation of funds for PBS was made at PKR 4.473 billion for the current fiscal year against the Employee Related Expenses (ERE) requirement of PKR 5.009 billion, leaving behind a gap of PKR 536.149 million.
The pensioners who worked their whole lives for PBC are running from pillar to post in search of a remedy but there seems to be no one who can help them or rescue them from this calamity.
An official communication sent out to the Ministry of Finance stated that the PBC is facing severe financial constraints due to the limited allocation of funds for the last several years especially, under the head “pension & commutation.
However, PBC has continued to pay monthly pensions to retired employees and widows but kept pending other ERE i.e., commutation, medical, repair & maintenance, and operating expenses.
The government provided a grant of PKR 4.628 billion for the current fiscal year against an estimated expense of PKR 7.257 billion, indicating that it faced a deficit of PKR 2.629 billion for the current fiscal year.
There was a deficit of PKR 1.793 billion on eve of the last budget so the accumulated financial losses touched the amount of PKR 4.422 billion for the current fiscal year.
This year, the government earmarked PKR 1.727 billion for payment of other allowances and pensions against the actual requirement of PKR 3.287 billion so the net shortfall stood at PKR 1.559 billion.
The government provided PKR 657.288 million for operating expenses against the total required expenditure of PKR 1.079 billion so the net shortfall stood at PKR 421.855 million. The piled-up liabilities including previous years up to June 30, 2022 stand at PKR 1.793 billion.
The PBC informed the government that during June 2022, PBC was unable to pay the monthly pension due to the non-availability of funds. The additional funds of PKR 953.156 million were requested for monthly pension and outstanding commutation of 275 retired employees/widows, whereas, only PKR 12 million were received as additional funds.
The AGPR has also issued a warning to Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MOIB) regarding insufficient budget under the head of ERE of PBC.
Under the circumstances, the PBC has made an urgent appeal for the approval of their request for additional funds of PKR 4.422 billion and the balance of the allocated budget of FY 2022-23 amounting to PKR2.54 billion of the third and fourth quarters.
The release of this funding alone can help the Corporation to meet its immediate liabilities and expenses up to 30.06.2023 of retired/regular employees, widows, artists and other parties.
The PBC’s failure do meet its liabilities can also expose it to litigation.
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