Minimum Pension Benefit: The Central Government has also formed a committee headed by the Finance Secretary to review the NPS.
Minimum Pension Benefit: Government employees in Madhya Pradesh are also demanding restoration of the old pension scheme. Their demands can affect the results of the assembly elections to be held in the state later this year.
Sensing this, the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP government in Madhya Pradesh is preparing to woo the government employees. Madhya Pradesh government can guarantee minimum pension to 4.50 lakh officers and employees who got government jobs in the state after 2005.
In order to make the National Pension System implemented in Madhya Pradesh attractive for the employees, a committee of senior officers has been constituted under the chairmanship of Additional Chief Secretary Finance of the state. This committee will brainstorm on the provision of fixing the guarantee of minimum pension in NPS. Out of the four states where elections are held,
the Congress governments of Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh have already re-implemented the old pension scheme in place of the National Pension Scheme in their respective states. The Central Government had implemented NPS for the employees coming into service after January 1, 2004. While NPS was implemented in Madhya Pradesh from January 1, 2005.
The governments of Congress-ruled Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Himachal Pradesh have separated from NPS and re-implemented the old pension scheme in their states. The government of Madhya Pradesh is considering amending the NPS to remove the displeasure of the employees demanding old pension in view of the elections.
The news came on Wednesday that amidst the increasing demand for the old pension scheme, the central government may also decide to give minimum pension to its employees. The central government can give assurance of giving minimum pension in the form of 40 to 45 percent of the last salary of the employees before retirement.
It is believed that the Central Government can make changes in the existing Market Linked Pension Scheme to the employees so that the resentment among the central employees regarding NPS can be reduced.
The Central Government has formed a committee under the chairmanship of the Finance Secretary to review the National Pension Scheme. This committee will submit its suggestions to the government to make NPS attractive.
In the current NPS, employees have to contribute 10% of the basic salary and 14% is contributed by the government. And the returns received by the employees on investment in NPS depends on the returns received on the total corpus.
The investment made by government employees in NPS is invested in government debt. In the old pension scheme, 50 percent of the last salary received by the employee before retirement is given as fixed pension after retirement.
Titanic Tourist Submarine : Search Relocated After Canadian Aircraft Detects Underwater Noises
