EPS Pension Hike:- A piece of good news is coming for crores of employees working in the private sector. The central government is preparing to increase the minimum pension under the Employees’ Pension Scheme (EPS) from ₹ 1,000 to ₹ 3,000. According to information received from government sources, this increase can be implemented in the next few months.
According to a report by Money Control, an official said that they are going to increase the minimum pension amount to ₹ 3,000 per month. It is worth noting that in 2014, the central government fixed the minimum pension given to EPFO subscribers from ₹ 250 to ₹ 1,000 per month.
The basis of your pension is deposited in EPF
A deduction of 12 percent on the basic salary of people working in the private sector is made for the EPF account. The company will also deposit the same total amount in the PF account of the government or private employee. Of the money deposited by the employer, 8.33 percent goes to EPS (Employees Pension Scheme), while the remaining 3.67 percent is deposited in EPF.
The amount deposited in EPS is received as a pension after retirement. In the year 2015, the Ministry of Labour sent a proposal to the Finance Ministry to increase the minimum pension under EPS to ₹ 2,000 per month, but it could not get approval.
Strong demand to increase the minimum pension to ₹ 7,500
Recently, a parliamentary committee recommended increasing the minimum pension of people working in the private sector from ₹ 1,000 to ₹ 7,500. Trade unions and pensioners associations have been demanding for a long time that the minimum pension be increased to at least ₹ 7,500 per month. They say that inflation has increased a lot, so the pension should also increase. But there has been no increase in it in the last 11 years.
If the government approves this proposal, it will be a big relief for crores of private sector employees, which will improve their financial security after retirement to some extent. However, the demand of pensioners is still much more than this. It will be interesting to see what further steps the government takes in this direction.