Bangladesh Social Security & Pension

General reference only. This skill is general tax/accounting reference material for AI-assisted workflows. It has not been reviewed for any specific person's facts, documents, elections, deadlines, residency, filing status, or local procedures. Do not rely on it to file, pay, amend, or take a tax position without review by a qualified professional in the relevant jurisdiction.

Section 1 — Quick Reference

Scheme	Who	Nature
Universal Pension Scheme (Sarbojanin Pension, from 2023)	Citizens 18–50 incl. self-employed	Voluntary contributory pension
— Surokkha	Self-employed / freelancers / professionals	Voluntary monthly contribution
— Progoti	Private-sector employees	Employee + employer
— Probash	Non-resident Bangladeshis	Voluntary
— Samata	Low-income (below a threshold)	Contribution part-funded by government
Provident fund / gratuity	Some private employees	Employer-scheme based

Field	Value
Currency	BDT (৳)
Authority	National Pension Authority (NPA); employers for PF/gratuity
Skill version	1.0

Section 2 — Key points (Tier 1)

• Bangladesh has no broad mandatory social-security contribution for the self-employed. A solo freelancer is generally not required to pay social contributions — the main obligation is income tax (and, for exporters, see bd-it-freelancer-tax). State this clearly.
• The Universal Pension Scheme (launched 2023) is voluntary: a self-employed person can join the Surokkha scheme and contribute monthly toward a pension; the Samata scheme adds a government co-contribution for low-income earners. Verify current contribution tiers and the government match.
• Employees may have a provident fund and gratuity through their employer; there is no universal national social-insurance payroll tax like in many countries.

Section 3 — Worked example

A solo freelancer: no mandatory social contribution; income tax only. Optionally joins Surokkha under the Universal Pension Scheme for a voluntary pension (and the contribution may qualify toward the investment tax rebate — verify).

Section 10 — Prohibitions

• NEVER tell a solo freelancer they owe mandatory social security (generally they do not) — flag the voluntary pension option.
• NEVER state pension contribution tiers / government match without verifying current NPA rules.

Disclaimer

Informational only; not advice. Verify Universal Pension Scheme tiers and PF/gratuity rules with the National Pension Authority / employer. All outputs must be reviewed and signed off by a qualified Bangladeshi practitioner. Maintained at openaccountants.com.