FinMin rejects proposal to double
minimum pension amount under EPS
The
Union finance ministry has rejected a proposal sent by the labour ministry to
double the monthly minimum pension amount to Rs 2,000 under the Employee
Pension Scheme (EPS).
The
Central Board of Trustees (CBT), the apex decision-making body of the Employee
Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), was apprised of the proposal s rejection
during a meeting on Saturday.
According
to the recommendations made by a highly-empowered monitoring committee
constituted by the government, a proposal to increase the minimum pension under
EPS from Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000 per month, by providing additional budgetary
support, was sent to the ministry of finance. The ministry of finance did not
agree to it, sources close to the development said.
Data
sourced from the social security organisation's annual report for FY23 shows
that of the total 7.55 million pensioners under the scheme, 3.64 million
received a monthly pension of up to Rs 1,000, followed by 1.17 million
pensioners, who received between Rs 1,001 and Rs 1,500. Around 868,000
pensioners received between Rs 1,501 and Rs 2,000 a month. Only 26,769
pensioners got above Rs 5,000 per month.
In
meetings, it has been our demand to raise the minimum pension amount. The
pension corpus is valued annually and additional reliefs are paid if the
position of the fund so permits.
Since
2000, the fund had run into deficit in most of the valuations done and no
additional relief could be provided. However, the Centre enhanced the minimum
pension to Rs 1,000 by providing budgetary support in 2014. Keeping in view the
widespread demand, the minimum pension should be raised further, a CBT member,
who attended the meeting, said.
The
EPS 1995 is a self-funded scheme with contributions equivalent to 8.33 per cent
of the monthly wages from the employer's share as well as 1.16 per cent of the
monthly wages (limited to the amount payable on salary of Rs 15,000) by the
central government.
In
March 2022, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour had asked the labour
ministry to pursue the matter with the ministry of finance for obtaining
adequate budgetary support, as the Rs 1,000 monthly pension is grossly
inadequate .
Earlier
on Saturday, the CBT held its 235th meeting. It recommended a three-year high
interest rate of 8.25 per cent for FY24 for its over 290 million total
subscribers. Of this, around 68 million are active contributing subscribers.
With
this payout, the EPFO is expected to retain a surplus of Rs 278 crore in FY23
as the board recommended a distribution of Rs 1.07 trillion to EPF members
accounts. This is on a total principal amount of around Rs 13 trillion in
2023-24.
www.business-standard.com dt. 12.02.2024