PROMINENT local accountant Jenny Seeto has raised concerns of unfairness in Governments Pension Restoration Fund set up in last year\u2019s national budget to reinstate pension payments for members that had been affected by the Fiji National Provident Fund (FNPF) reform in 2011.<\/p>\n
Ms Seeto was speaking in her capacity as an FNPF member during the FNPF Law Review consultations held at the Suva Civic Center on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n
The Coalition Government had introduced an FNPF pension restoration fund in last year\u2019s national budget (FY2024-2025) to reinstate pension payments for members that had been affected by the FNPFs reform in 2011, which mandated the reduction of pension rates.<\/p>\n
Under the initiative, the Government will pay out $4million a year to affected pensioners.<\/p>\n
Ms Seeto said while she sympathises with the affected pensioners, the $4m allocation could be better used elsewhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a taxpayer I would rather the $4m a year be used towards CWM (Colonial War Memorial Hospital) for example, because so long as there is the ability for FNPF to pay the pensions, so instead of paying eight per cent to members (annual interest credited to FNPF members), why don\u2019t they (FNPF) pay less and gradually restore the pensions themselves. That\u2019s one suggestion,\u201d Ms Seeto said.<\/p>\n
Ms Seeto said while the Government\u2019s initiative was commendable, she felt it was not the right direction and called for more clarity and good communication from both parties in order to put the matter to rest.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s never been explained why the law can\u2019t change and I don\u2019t know whether it is a decree, I\u2019m just guessing that because it\u2019s a decree, it\u2019s linked onto the constitution but I think we need some education around why the law can\u2019t change.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs it to do with sustainability? Again, (it\u2019s been) 14years since this all happened. I think we just need clarity around why the law can\u2019t change and some good communication so we can put the matter to rest.\u201d<\/p>\n
FNPFs board said the fund was disallowed to continue its previous pension payments after its reforms in 2011.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe issue now about the restoration is again something we can\u2019t do because it\u2019s under the Constitution, because any decree amended is amended moving forward not amended moving backwards,\u201d FNPF board member and workers\u2019 union representative Attar Singh said. \u201cThe 2012 decree under which the pension reform was undertaken was done by an unelected Government and I think many were unhappy about that, I was one of them as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Government\u2019s position about taking the step to continue paying the pensions\u2026that\u2019s a Government decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cGovernment\u2019s budget has nothing to do with the Fund (FNPF).<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Fund\u2019s position was that the Fund was disallowed from continuing the previous pension.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt had undergone a reform, and members were given a choice on options to take, and the members exercised their option.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe point is that the law as it is, the Fund cannot use members\u2019 funds against what the law is. So, what the law currently says is: \u2018We can\u2019t give it\u2019, so we cannot give it,\u201d Mr Singh said.<\/p>\n
In delivering his Budget speech last year, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Prof Biman Prasad said the full cost of the restoration initiative is estimated to be around $57m over the next two decades.<\/p>\n
Note: This article was first published on the print version of the Fiji Times dated August 21, 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PROMINENT local accountant Jenny Seeto has raised concerns of unfairness in Governments Pension Restoration Fund set up in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[64,63,99,186,184,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-88259","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-finance","12":"tag-personal-finance","13":"tag-personalfinance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}