New Delhi: The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) and the Labour Ministry have stated that the PF pension cannot be paid in proportion to higher salary as that would create a huge financial burden.
The central government will inform this to the Supreme Court, which is hearing a case on PF pension, EPFO officials told the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour.
This will adversely affect the millions of people who have been expecting a higher pension.
A higher pension would carry a huge financial burden even if the unclaimed amount in the EPFO is used for this purpose, EPFO officials said.
It is learnt that officials told the meeting that the proposals to reform the pension system in India recommends creation of individual accounts and payment of higher contributions for higher pension.
Elamaram Kareem and Dean Kuriakose from Kerala are members of the committee.
There are more pensioners (67 lakhs) than the total employees of the central government. The Supreme Court is considering the review petition filed by EPFO and the special permission petition of the Ministry of Labour against a Kerala High Court's verdict to grant higher pension.
EPFO's arguments
In 2018, a high-powered committee had given a report saying the minimum pension should be increased from Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000. This would require an additional budgetary support of Rs 4,169 crore to Rs 4,526 crore; if this is to be increased to Rs 3,000, an additional Rs 11,880 - Rs 14,593 crore will be required every year.
There is the liability to pay full pension after 15 years to those who have commuted their pension earlier. Under this head, Rs 151.45 crore was paid till July this year.
There is a proposal for a new scheme to create personal accounts for those joining new and provide pension in proportion to the contributions made.
Bonus for central govt employees in a week
The Union Cabinet has decided to give a total bonus of Rs 3,737 crore within a week to the 30.67 lakh non-gazetted employees of the Central Government.
According to Minister Prakash Javadekar, 16.97 lakh employees in commercial establishments like Railways, Postal Department, ESI and EPFO will be paid production-related bonus of Rs 2,791 crore, while the 13.70 lakh people in other departments will get a bonus of Rs 946 crore for the year 2019-20.
