E states have seen the protest of government employees on the existing pension scheme and have demanded to return to OPS. This demand has increased further since five non-BJP states Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh have re-implemented the old pension scheme and informed the central government about it.
National Pension System Review
The Union Finance Minister has announced the review of the National Pension System in the Parliament today. For this, the government has also announced a committee under the leadership of the Finance Secretary, which will make necessary changes on this. All those changes will be universal, which can be adopted by both the central and state governments. The Finance Minister has also said that he was getting indications from many places that changes should be made in this. Because of which this decision has been taken, but the matter is something else. In fact, voices have started being raised regarding NPS even from the BJP ruled states. Earlier this voice was heard from Maharashtra, now the voices have become louder from Haryana.
Maharashtra government has also formed a committee
In recent months, several states have seen protests by government employees over the existing pension scheme and demand for a return to OPS. This demand has increased further since five non-BJP states Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh have re-implemented the old pension scheme and informed the central government about it. Earlier this week, the Eknath Shinde-led government announced the formation of a three-member committee to conduct a comparative study of the old and new pension schemes and submit a report in time. After which the Maharashtra government employees called off their strike.
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Demand rising from Haryana as well
On the other hand, the Haryana Employees Union has also raised the demand to restore the old pension scheme. The Sangh has also got the support of all the organizations of the state. A few weeks ago, the Haryana Employees’ Union had said that ‘Haryana Andolan’ would be launched in this regard and would culminate in a mega rally on May 28. At present, there is a BJP government in Haryana and the CM here is Manohar Lal Khattar. Right now the demand has arisen only from two big states where there is a BJP government. NPS has been put under review even before raising voice in other states. So that the rest of the BJP ruled states can get an indication that the Center is working on it.
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What does the SBI report say?
In a report last year, State Bank of India had said that if all the states switch to the old scheme, the value of total pension liabilities would be around Rs 31.04 lakh crore. RBI has also said that going back to the old pension scheme will create financial crisis for the states in future. On the other hand, the former RBI governor has raised many questions on OPS and has talked about finding another option.
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When was NPS implemented
In 2004, the then Prime Minister of the country Atal Bihari Vajpayee started the National Pension Scheme by discontinuing the old pension scheme. In the old system, pension was 50 percent of the last salary of the employee and the entire amount was paid by the government. NPS works on contribution basis, where government employees have to contribute 10% of their salary to the retirement fund. The government gives up to 14 per cent for the pension corpus.
