Pension Hike- There has been a long-standing demand to increase the minimum pension amount of the Employees’ Pension Scheme (EPS) from Rs 1,000 to Rs 7,500. Now a ray of hope has appeared in this direction. The Parliamentary Standing Committee has asked the Ministry of Labor to complete the review of the EPS scheme by a third party i.e. external experts within a certain time frame. The chairman of this committee is BJP MP Basavaraj Bommai. The committee wants this review to be completed by the end of 2025.
Why is there a need for review in the EPS scheme
EPS-95 i.e. Employee Pension Scheme was started in 1995. Its objective is to provide a fixed monthly pension to the employees after retirement. In 2014, EPFO had fixed the minimum pension amount at Rs 1,000, but no change has been made in it since then. During this period, inflation has increased many times but the pension remains the same old one.
Now for the first time, the process of third party review of this scheme has been started. The Ministry of Labor has told the committee that Request for Proposal (RFP) has been issued for this review and the work has started. The committee said that since the review is being done for the first time in 30 years, it should be completed within the stipulated time.
What is the demand of pensioners?
The National Committee of Retired Employees under EPS-95 has been demanding for a long time that the minimum pension amount should be made Rs 7,500 per month and the benefit of dearness allowance (DA) should also be given so that the impact of rising inflation can be reduced.
Before the Budget 2024-25, retired employees of EPS-95 met Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. After the meeting, the EPS-95 National Agitation Committee said that the Finance Minister has assured to consider their demands.
There has already been a proposal to increase the pension
The Ministry of Labor has informed the committee that a proposal to increase the minimum pension of EPS to Rs 2,000 was sent to the Finance Ministry in 2020, but it was not approved. This proposal later also came up for discussion before the budget of 2024-25.
What could happen next?
The parliamentary committee believes that the cost of living has increased a lot in the past years, so it has become very important to increase the minimum pension of EPS. After the results of the review, it is possible that the government may decide to increase the EPS pension to Rs 7,500.
