Min­is­ter of Fi­nance, Dav­en­dra­dath Tan­coo, said yes­ter­day the Gov­ern­ment is mov­ing ahead with its plan to re­move tax­es on pri­vate pen­sions as ini­tial­ly promised by the Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar dur­ing the 2025 gen­er­al elec­tion cam­paign.

“We are work­ing out the de­tails and once com­plet­ed, the pro­posed leg­is­la­tion will be pre­sent­ed to the Par­lia­ment as re­quired,” Tan­coo said last night.

De­liv­er­ing the 2026 bud­get on Oc­to­ber 13, 2025, Tan­coo told Par­lia­ment, “In keep­ing with the Gov­ern­ment’s promise dur­ing the 2025 elec­tion cam­paign, I pro­pose that pri­vate pen­sions be ex­empt­ed from in­come tax. These amend­ments will take ef­fect on Jan­u­ary 1, 2026.”

Jan­u­ary 1 was last Thurs­day and there has been no con­crete word on the tim­ing of the leg­is­la­tion to bring the pro­pos­al to life.

Tan­coo al­so told Guardian Me­dia the num­bers were not ready when the Fi­nance Bill was last brought be­fore Par­lia­ment and it is set to be dis­cussed when the bill re­turns for de­bate in Feb­ru­ary.

How­ev­er, the lim­it­ed re­lease of in­for­ma­tion has left re­cip­i­ents of pri­vate pen­sions con­cerned that they may miss out on the ex­emp­tion, as no guide­lines have been sent from the Board of In­land Rev­enue (BIR) to pri­vate pen­sion providers re­gard­ing the tax­a­tion on pen­sions. When the Fi­nance Bill be­comes law, the guide­lines will be sent.

This is wor­ry­ing, one pen­sion­er ex­plained to the Guardian, as all an­nu­i­tants are re­quired to sub­mit a Cer­tifi­cate of Ex­is­tence form (COE) by Feb­ru­ary 1, 2026, to en­sure the con­tin­u­a­tion of their month­ly pen­sion pay­ments.

Giv­en the fact that the bill is set to re­turn to Par­lia­ment in Feb­ru­ary, some pen­sion­ers are con­cerned they will be sub­ject to a tax de­duc­tion un­til the leg­is­la­tion is passed.