Everyone of us is aware that it is the
previous NDA Government which introduced the NPS in 2003 through a Gazette
Notification dated 22nd December 2003, to all new entrants recruited on or
after 01-01-2004. We are also aware that the UPA-II Government
passed the PFRDA Bill in Parliament to legalise NPS, with the full support of
opposition BJP MPs in 2013 and thereafter PFRDA Act came into effect from 18th
September 2013. AIDRDOTOA, CCGGOO, CCGEW, All India State Govt.
Employees Federation (AISGEF) and others conducted series of agitational
programmes against NPS from 2003 onwards.
7th Central Pay Commission headed by Shri.
Ashok Kumar Mathur, Retired Justice of Supreme Court of India, in Para 1.24 of
its Report made the following observations:
“Almost
a whole lot of Central Government employees appointed on or after 01-01-2004
were unhappy with the New Pension Scheme. While National Pension System
(NPS) did not form a part of our Terms of Reference; we have recorded the
sentiments of the affected employees. The Government should take a call
and step into to look into their demands”.
In Para 10.03.11, the 7th CPC again made the
following comments:
“The
larger Federations and Staff Associations advocated scrapping of the NPS on the
ground that it discriminate between two sets of Government employees.
Individuals covered under NPS have pleaded for reverting to Old Pension Scheme
(OPS) on the grounds of uncertainty regarding the actual value of their future
pension, on the face of market related risks.”
Naturally, in tune with the recommendations of
7th CPC, when the NDA Govt. decided to appoint a High Level Committee called
“NPS Committee”, the Central Government employees, especially the younger
generation, expected that their anxiety and concerns will be taken into account
by the Central Government and NPS will be scraped and OPS will be
restored. But the final decision of the Government not to scrap NPS
but only to increase the percentage of contribution by the Government from 10%
to 14% was a great blow to the NPS employees. Their hopes are
shattered, “their legitimate aspirations are guillotined” and a situation is
created where their “hopes ended in despair”.
Their hope faded further when Shri. Arun
Jaitley, Finance Minister, in his letter dated 3rd January 2019 addressed to
Shri. Nitin Gadkari, another Cabinet Minister in the NDA Government, justified
the continuation of NPS as follows:
“NPS is expected to provide old age income
security to subscribers besides providing capital for the social and economic
development of the economy”.
The
final blow came when the NDA Government made its stand clear without any
ambiguity in a reply dated 25-12-2018 given in Parliament stating that - “Representations
have been received which inter-alia also include the demand that Government may
revert to Old defined benefit pension system. However, due to the rising
and unsustainable pension bill and competing claims on the fiscal, there is no
proposal to replace the National Pension System (NPS) with Old Pension System
(OPS) in respect of Central Govt. employees recruited on or after 01-01-2004”.
During the past 2-3 years many NPS recruited employees and also aged dependents
of deceased employees who got compassionate appointment after 01-01-2004 etc,
retired from service after completing 10 to 13 years service. Their
Annuity Pension under NPS is Rs.700/- to Rs.2700/- maximum per month, thus
confirming our apprehension that “NPS is nothing but No Pension System”.
Unlike the NDA Government at the Centre,
certain State Governments understood the seriousness of the situation and they
have declared that they want to scrap NPS. (Delhi, Andhra Pradesh,
Tamilnadu during Jayaalalitha’s time, Karnataka and Kerala Governments).
Some of them appointed expert Review Committees to work out modalities for
coming out of NPS. From the stand taken by the above State Governments it
can be seen that it is the political stand of the ruling party that
matter. At the centre, it is the political stand of the Political Party
ruling the country which is crucial.
No comments:
Post a Comment