NPS has relatively inferior benefits/security-so can surely affect motivations for taking unfair pressures

Politicians are sensing a very ‘Vote Catching Bait’ in Old Pension Scheme for Govt Employees
State needs to provide reasonable degree of social security to public servant & OPS surely does that
Why should not PSEs employee (who work under similar conduct rules) be also given Pension like OPS?

DAYA SAGAR

According to Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions GOI Department of Pensions and Pensioner’s welfare office memorandum No 57/05/2021-P&PW(B) dated 03-03-2023) in a major move according to a Personnel Ministry of GOI order of 03-03-2023 the employees who joined the central government services against posts advertised or notified before December 22, 2003, the day National Pension System (NPS) was notified, are eligible to join the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) under the Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 1972 (now 2021) and take the benefit of the pension scheme under Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 1972 (now 2021) on the ground that their appointment was made against the posts/vacancies advertised/notified for recruitment prior to notification for National Pension System, referring to court judgments of various High Courts and Central Administrative Tribunals allowing such benefits to applicants. The memo also noted ” “Representations have been received…from the government servants appointed on or after 01.01.2004 requesting for extending the benefit of the pension scheme under Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 1972 (now 2021) on the ground that their appointment was made against the posts/vacancies advertised/notified for recruitment prior to notification for National Pension System, referring to court judgments of various High Courts and Central Administrative Tribunals allowing such benefits to applicants,”. Earlier to 2004 too the pension paid to government employees was irrespective of the economic status of the government resources being deficit or surplus since the policy of retirement pension atleast to government employees was based on the principle that a government servant had to handle the affairs of the society in a socialistic democratic setup to secure the social& material interests of one and all during his/her active service setting aside one’s own material interests i.e one is debarred from rearing any private enterprise/ trade/ business by way of material or services so has to be provided minimum respectable material security for survival during later years within the means of the society that contributes to the state exchequer.
The provision of pension for providing some material security to senior citizens and atleast for government employees, is very much needed since they have to stand against all sorts of undue social pressures/ material pressures & allurements / pressures of the politicians / political governments (that change every 5 years) so that one atleast hopes safe physical survival after retirement. Art-311 of constitution of India was surely incorporated to provides security to government employee against any undue pressure / treatment by the political “government” of the day { Art-311 – Dismissal, removal or reduction in rank of persons employed in civil capacities under the Union or a State.-(1) No person who is a member of a civil service of the Union or an all-India service or a civil service of a State or holds a civil post under the Union or a State shall be dismissed or removed by an authority subordinate to that by which he was appointed. (2) No such person as aforesaid shall be dismissed or removed or reduced in rank except after an inquiry in which he has been informed of the charges against him and given a reasonable opportunity of being heard in respect of those charges ….).
To be brief it could be said that The Old Pension Scheme (OPS) provides a guaranteed pension ( 50%for retiring government employees based on their last drawn basic salary (50%) & years of service , no amount is deducted from employees’ salaries during active service towards pension fund and the pension increases twice in a year with DA announced for in-service employees as well as whenever the pay scales are revised for government employees ( like present pay commissions every 10 years ). So the pension keeps on increasing .Instances could be quoted where the government employee retired fifteen to 20 year back may be getting total pension emoluments even more than the wages one drew at the time of retirement. It provides / provided guaranteed, inflation and pay commission-indexed pension payments to retired government employees and their spouses.
The government introduced New Pension Scheme an alternative to the existing OPS .The new scheme did not have any commitment to provide secure and stable retirement income and is a scheme administered by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA)wherr presently government employees can contribute 10% of their basic salary plus Dearness Allowance (DA), and the government contributes 14% of the basic salary plus DA every month.NPS is a market-linked annuity scheme where consolidated contributions in a pension fund may be/ are invested in a diversified portfolio (government bills, bonds, corporate shares, debentures) by professional fund managers ( such (SBI, LIC, UTI, etc.,) regulated by the PFRDA where on retirement one can withdraw a part ( presently say up to 60%)and invest the remaining ( presently say 40% to receive pension annuities as a monthly pension). The income from investments and the interests that could be earned from even if total 60% of the fund withdrawn on retirement is invested in FDRs can nowhere match the provisions of OPS. In other words contrary to OPS the NPS does not provide guaranteed, inflation and pay commission-indexed pension payments to retired government employees and their spouses.
One would get a fair idea by looking into the data as regards a Government employee Mr. YYYY who retired on 31-10-1991 getting pay ( Basic plus DA)as around Rs.7300/ pm, started with Pension of Rs.3617/pm ( basic pension plus DA) and in June 2020 he was getting Rs.37948 /pm as pension. Physicals of an IAS officer appointed in 2004 cannot be quoted here since so far no employee who could get pension under NPS has retired but it is very certain that when someone will retire the ‘position’ will be very terrifying even when the employer contribution has already been revised to 14 % where as when it was the case of Contributory provident fund for PSEs & Private sector for decades the employer contribution was 8.33% only and when revised to 10 % to 12% that to was not implemented that committedly. The reflections can just be seen from the case of a Government ( GOI ) PSU employee who retired in 8/2011 under contributory PF Scheme who just around Rs10 Lakh as share of government employer contribution and in case amount was kept in a FDR the interest would be hardly less than Rs.8000/pm and in 2020 August it would be Rs.5000/PM. Whereas under pension scheme he would have started with pension of over around 30000/pm and would have been getting pension of around 50000 in June 2020. Ofcourse OPS for government employees also have benefits like commutipart of pension.
So new pension scheme, since it has inferior benefits/ security on retirements for government employees on retirement, is surely going to affect adversely the motivation for taking challenges/ unfair pressures during active service . Why not GoI reverts to OPS for all instead of allowing politicians to kick the ‘OPS Ball’.
(The author is a senior journalist and analyst of J&K Affairs, [email protected])