Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala government on Thursday decided to deduct the employees' share for the National Pension Scheme (NPS) from a month's salary that was repaid to the staff after initially pooling it for pandemic relief.
Over 1.25 lakh employees of the Kerala government were paid back the one month's salary that was deducted in several instalments for payment to the Chief Minister's Distress Relief Fund on account of the COVID-19 pandemic. The NPS share of the state government staff will now be deducted from this pending amount.
The government will also contribute its share as the employer.
Earlier the employees and the government as employers were allowed not to contribute their respective NPS share the month they had contributed to the Chief Minister's Distress Relief Fund.
In a notification issued by the Kerala government on February 26, it was made clear that the share of employees coming within the purview of NPS need not be deducted from the refunded salary. But the government later received a legal opinion on mandatorily deducting the employees' salary towards the NPS share, lest the government will be made to compensate on their behalf. The Accountant General too had counselled the state administration on these lines.
A fresh notification will now be issued mandating the NPS deduction from the employees' payout.
