December 15, 2022
Dola Sen’s Special Mention on the need for mitigating the various defects of the new National Pension Scheme, including making dearness relief as part of the scheme, as was the case with the earlier NPS
Sir, the National Pension Scheme is a tragedy for retiring personnel. The pension under the current plan is just 15 per cent of the pension under the previous one. Asserting that the National Pension Scheme (NPS) is a catastrophe for retiring employees in their old age, multiple employees have also written to the Cabinet Secretary pleading for the restoration of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS). For instance, a Defence establishment official who recently retired after more than 13 years of service, according to the federation, would only receive 15 per cent of the assured pension he would have normally gotten under the OPS. After more than 15 years of service, another official with a base wage of Rs.34,300 received Rs.2,506 as a monthly pension, although under the OPS, he would have been entitled to Rs.17,150. The NPS personnel are worse off than OPS employees despite paying a monthly contribution of 10 per cent of their income throughout their whole employment. The NPS pension is static, and unlike the OPS, there is no Dearness Relief to offset inflation or price increases. There is an urgent need to address the employees’ concerns and take necessary steps to include Dearness Relief as a part of the pension
scheme and restore the old one. I, therefore, urge the Government to take steps to address these concerns. Already, most of the profitable Central Government concerns are going to be disinvested. So, closure of Central Government service and reduced pension both have put employees in deep distress and are affecting them badly.
