The government introduced new taxes for the employees of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and there is no discrimination between regular and retired employees. This is a sheer injustice, for retired employees cannot afford to bear the burden of these taxes.
As per the Finance Act-2014 the government increased Federal Excise Duty (FED) rate on a services provided or rendered in respect of travel within Pakistan by air as Rs 2500 for long { routes, Rs 1250 on short routes, and Rs 500 on socio-economic routes, while a 4 percent tax is also levied on international travelling.
This is affecting the retired employees severely in today's inflationary times because retired employees are already under burden and this taxation is further disturbing them as they are not able to enjoy the facility of travelling once allowed to them by the airline.
This taxation is adding to the woes of the retired employees at the time when there is no increase in their pensions since long. Almost every year there is plausible increase in the pensions of federal and provincial government employees at the time of budgets, but this is not the case with the retired employees of the airline despite that their pensions are very low as compared to other government departments.
The national airline gives its employees 32 percent of their total salary as pension but the formula (which was adopted in 2003) it applies in the end makes the pension calculated on their basic pays. This is not just. As per rules all other governmental organisations give their retired employees 50% of their salaries as pensions. This was also in practice at PIA till the end of 2003. The retired employees have been demanding since long that the airline should either give them 50 percent pension on the basic pay or make the 32 percent pension to be given on their total salaries without the said formula.
Another option is that the government and the airline should either increase the pensions of the retired employees in order to compensate for this taxation or spare the retired employees from this burden.
In the end, I would like to make an appeal to finance minister Ishaq Dar to look into this issue and try to bring a solution to help the retired employees of the airline.