The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour has recommended that the minimum pension under the Employees Pension Scheme (EPS) should be raised to at least ₹3,000 from the present ₹1,000.
The panel, headed by BJD MP Bhartruhari Mahtab, said in its report on demands for grants that the Centre should specifically look into the grievances that employers failed to deposit PF contribution deducted from employees’ wages into the PF Accounts and also defaulted on their own contribution.
“A conscious decision leading to payment to workers who are yet to receive the statutory benefits of PF and ESI needs to be urgently taken up for redressal,” the report, tabled in both the Houses on Tuesday, said.
On the EPS, the report said the minimum pension which was announced in 2014 and continues to be applicable till date is grossly inadequate. “Even this meagre amount of ₹1,000 is reportedly not being given to many pensioners owing to various reasons and pension amounts as low as ₹460 are being disbursed. Therefore, demands and representations have been made for raising the monthly pension to a minimum of ₹3,000 or even a better amount ranging up to ₹9,000 per month,” the report said.
It added that a major problem with EPS is that there is no link between an employee’s saving/contribution per se and the actual pension amount as all contributions are pooled in one account and the pension amount disbursed on the basis of the last salary drawn by the employee.
“Also, reportedly, no limits exist either on the amount of withdrawals or the time frame for making withdrawals, and yet the account holder continues to be eligible for pension. EPS 95, being a ‘Defined Benefit’ scheme which guarantees a minimum pension has inherent limitations, which, as per the Ministry would be a burden on the exchequer unless appropriate changes are made in the administration of the scheme,” the report said.
Increased expenditure
It said an increase in the pension amount to ₹3,000 would entail an increased expenditure of ₹15,000 crore thereby taking the total impact on the exchequer to ₹25,000 crore. “The committee in this regard, desires that earnest efforts be made for addressing the drawbacks or limitations of the scheme, and at the same time ensure that the worker’s interest are protected by way of ensuring a reasonable monthly pension of at least ₹3,000 under EPS 95. The committee would like to be apprised of the developments in this regard,” the report said.
The panel found that data on industrial disputes handled by Central Industrial Relations Machinery (CIRM) during the last three years reveals that the Central Labour Commissioner handled stand at 12,427, 14,002 and 9,018; Industrial Disputes disposed off stand at 7,996, 9,016 and 2,532; and strikes averted stand at 461, 698 and 89 respectively for the years 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21 (April to November). It asked the Chief Labour Commissioner’s Organisation to play a pro-active role in averting strikes and disposing industrial disputes in a time bound manner so that unproductive time of the labour force locked in disputes is curtailed to the minimum.
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